The Briar Cliff men's basketball team held off a second half push from Benedictine Saturday in the Newman Flanagan Center. The Chargers outscored the Ravens 13-6 in the overtime period to earn their fifth win of the season.
 
Head coach Mark Svagera recorded his 100th win tonight as a head coach in his career. Svagera holds a 100-59 overall record as head coach of the Chargers.

"We played a great first half tonight, I really liked the intensity and effort we played with pretty consistently throughout the first half," said Svagera. "Obviously, the second half didn't go quite as planned for us but I was really proud of the guys playing with a lot of toughness. We found a way to get some really tough stops down the stretch and overtime. I think there was multiple ways and reasons we could've ended up losing the game and it's a credit to our players for finding a way to get it done tonight."
 
The Chargers had five players score five or more points in the first half, led by eight points from Conner Groves and Kyle Boerhave. BC knocked down eight 3-pointers, with Groves, Quinn Vesey and Nick Hoyt all knocking down two apiece.
 
Briar Cliff got off to a hot start, taking a 15-4 lead after Hoyt's second trey in five minutes. Benedictine cut the lead to eight at one point in the half, but the Cliff quickly built their lead back to double-digits A jumper from Matthew Stilwill with 30 seconds left gave BC their largest lead of the night as they held a 38-21 edge at halftime.
 
The Chargers offense struggled in the second half, shooting just 20.8% from the field and 1-of-14 from deep. However, BC took advantage of their trips to the free throw line, converting 12-of-15 attempts. The Ravens shot 56.0% in the second half and scored 40 points.
 
With a second left in the contest, and the Cliff trailing by two points, Stilwill was fouled and had a chance to tie the game. Stilwill knocked down both free throws to send the game to overtime.
 
Briar Cliff shot 42.9% from the field in OT and knocked down 7-of-9 attempts from the charity stripe. Groves led the Cliff with six points and grabbed five rebounds in the five-minute overtime.
 
Boerhave paced the Cliff with a double-double 15 points and 10 rebounds. Groves and Stilwill added 14 points apiece and Vesey scored 10.
 
The Blue and Gold return to GPAC play Tuesday night when the team hosts Dordt at 7:45 p.m. in the Newman Flanagan Center.