Jaden Kleinhesselink and the Briar Cliff men's basketball team was on fire from deep Thursday in a 90-75 win over Missouri Baptist. The Chargers connected on 19 3-pointers at a 59.4% clip and scored 53 second half points as they improve to 7-6 on the season.
 
"Really happy with how the guys played today, I thought for the most part we played a really complete game," said head coach Mark Svagera. "I liked the intensity and urgency we played with defensively to start the game. Offensively, we really got it going today so it was nice to see the three-ball go like that. Obviously, Jaden had a really good game shooting the ball for us, and we got some really good production from our bench. We had to weather some first half foul trouble and particularly Nate Hall was a little bit of a x-factor for us and gave us a boost tonight. A good way to come back from Christmas break and build some real positive momentum as we move forward."
 
Kleinhesselink poured in a season high 30 points and knocked down 9-of-11 3-point attempts. The senior guard was a big factor in BC's second half scoring output, as he scored 18 points with five triples.
 
Briar Cliff spread the ball out offensively with 20 assists on 31 made shots. Four different Chargers recorded three or more assists led by Quinn Vesey and Conner Groves who each had five. Nathan Hall and Nick Hoyt tallied four and three assists, respectively.
 
Missouri Baptist scored the first two points of the game, but the Charger quickly grabbed the lead after Kleinhesselink's first 3-poitner. The score tied once at the 14:17 mark but would otherwise stay in BC's favor for the entire game. The Chargers would extend their lead to double-digits three different times in the first half, but would a four-point lead, 35-31 at half.
 
The Chargers began to pull away from the Spartans with 11:21 left in the second half after nine-straight points from Kleinhesselink, who knocked down three 3-pointers in a row. BC brought their lead up to 25 points twice and would close out with a 90-75 win.
 
The Chargers face Ottawa Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in Ottawa, Kansas. Briar Cliff returns to GPAC play on January 4 at Dakota Wesleyan.