The Briar Cliff men's basketball team battled the #14 Jimmies of Jamestown for 40 minutes Wednesday in Jamestown, North Dakota but fell 77-83.
 
In a GPAC road contest against one of the NAIA's top teams, Jaden Kleinhesselink did all he could for the Chargers upset bid over the Jimmies. Kleinhesselink poured in a game and season high 30 points on a nearly perfect 12-of-15 shooting to go with eight rebounds. He was a perfect 4-of-4 from deep and played all 40 minutes.
 
"Heck of a GPAC battle tonight," said head coach Mark Svagera. "I loved everything about our effort and willingness to compete, just didn't like the final result. We need to clean up a few things right now, but even in a tough loss there is a lot of positives to build on moving forward."
 
Overall, the Chargers shot a higher field goal percentage 54.2%-to-45.4% than the Jimmies and made seven more field goals. However, the Jimmies made the most of their opportunities at the charity stripe, connecting on 23-of-24 attempts, compared to 2-of-4 attempts for the Cliff.
 
The advantage belonged to the Cliff through the first 10 minutes of action, as they built their lead to 10 points after a bucket from Kleinhesselink. BC took their largest lead of the half, 33-22 after a Tyrus Eischeid tripe, but the Jimmies would answer with an 13-2 run to tie the game. Kleinhesselink's basket with four seconds left would give BC a two-point edge at half.
 
The Jimmies held the lead through the first 13 minutes of the second half but were unable to pull away as the Cliff stayed within six points or less. Kleinhesselink's bucket gave the Blue and Gold a brief lead, 65-63 at 7:12 but after the Jimmies led the rest of the way after six straight points.
 
Kleinhesselink scored eight points in the final 14 seconds of the game, banking in a pair of 3-pointers, but the Jimmies were 12-for-12 from the free throw line in the final minute to close out the win.
 
Conner Groves scored 15 points and dished out three assists. Tyrus Eischeid added nine points, while Nathan Hall scored eight.
 
Briar Cliff had more bench points (17-6), more points in the paint (26-24), while the Jimmies had more second chance points (17-2).
 
Briar Cliff heads to Sioux Center, Iowa Saturday for a GPAC meeting with RV Dordt at 6:00 p.m.