The Briar Cliff women's basketball team's season came to a close Tuesday in the NAIA National Tournament Round of 16. The No. 4 seed Chargers fell to No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan 88-77 at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
 
The Chargers were led by guards Payton Slaughter and Kennedy Benne who each scored 24 points. Slaughter recorded her third double-double of the season with 11 rebounds to go with five assists and two steals.
 
Benne corralled seven rebounds, knocked down two 3-pointers and had five steals. Benne, the GPAC co-Defensive Player of the Year, brought her junior season tally to 82 steals, good for 14th in the NAIA.
 
Other than the score tying three times in the first 20 minutes, the Chargers held the lead for all of the first half. They built up their largest lead of the game (10) after a Benne fastbreak basket with 5:32 left in the second quarter.
 
Briar Cliff poured in 24 first quarter points, behind a 60.0 shooting percentage while connecting on 4-of-7 attempts from the 3-point line. Six of the seven Chargers that checked in scored points in the opening period, led by Benne's seven.
 
Both defenses settled in during the second quarter, as the Chargers shot 37.5% from the field and the Wildcats shot 33.3%. Madelyn Deitchler and Slaughter fueled an 11-2 Charger run that brought the lead up to 35-25 with 5:32 left in the half. The Wildcats, however, cut the Charger lead to two, 38-36 at halftime.
 
The Chargers surrendered the lead for the first time at the 9:05 mark of the third quarter, 40-41. After extending lead to the three, back-to-back buckets from Slaughter and Benne gave the Cliff a one-point advantage. In a back-and-forth period, the lead changed hands five times. Slaughter drove the Charger offense, tallying 10 of their 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting with a pair of steals.
 
The Wildcats expanded their advantage to 13, their largest of the game, with 5:55 left. BC began to chip away at the lead, Kaegan Held converted an and-one followed by baskets from Benne and Slaughter to pull within six points. Indiana Wesleyan iced the game at the free throw line, however, connecting on 14-of-18 free throw attempts in the final quarter.
 
Held scored 10 points with four rebounds on 4-of-8 shooting. Deitchler had six points, while Peyton Wingert had three points and six rebounds.
 
The Chargers made their 15th appearance at the national tournament in head coach Brian Ortmeier's first season leading the team and played their first game in the Round of 16 since the 2015-16 season.
 
Briar Cliff's 26 wins is the most since the 2014-15 season, when they went 26-10 and advanced to the semifinal game.  
 
The Chargers close the year with a 26-8 record, finishing second in the GPAC regular season at 17-5 and won their program's first GPAC Postseason Tournament Championship.