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Big first half leads MLC past Finlandia

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Martin Luther College’s Hailey Johnson (24) takes a shot during the first half against Finlandia Saturday at MLC in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — While the Martin Luther College women’s basketball team was cruising along in the first and second quarter of Saturday’s nonconference game against Finlandia, MLC coach Dan Gawrisch warned his players that Finlandia could get hot at any time.

That’s exactly what happened as the Lions got hot in the second half, especially from 3-point range. But MLC had enough at the end to hang on for the 75-70 victory. It was the second straight win after the Christmas break for the Knights, who also won on Friday night.

MLC (4-9) was led by Jade St. Germaine, who finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Mariah Schoof also had a big game offensively, finishing with 19 points and four rebounds.

The Knights weren’t able to get much pressure on the Lions from outside late in the game.

“It’s just a matter of communication, something to work on for the next [game],” Schoof said. “It prepares us for the future.”

Gawrisch knew the Lions could get hot. They did and the Knights weren’t always in position to stop them.

“We actually talked about that in pre-game, that this is a very good shooting team and they might start off hot, they might start off cold, but at some point they’re going to hit 3s,” Gawrish said. “We have to do the little things right to put ourselves in position to win.”

MLC jumped out to a commanding 13-0 lead to start the game. It led 18-2 at one point and 26-10 at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter was much the same, but at that point the Lions offense had responded and they trailed 44-25 at halftime.

The Lions gave the Knights some troubles in the second half. Although they didn’t go on a long scoring run, they managed to outscore MLC 21-14 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 58-46 after three.

The Knights themselves were hitting shots, enough to respond to Finlandia’s run. MLC hit 8-of-26 from 3-point range (31 percent) and Finlandia hit 13-of-35 from outside (37 percent).

It appeared the Knights were a bit slow in the second half on the second half of a two-game series.

“They were hitting shots at a time where we had a lack of energy and communication on the defensive end,” Gawrisch said. “When those two things go together, you see teams go on scoring runs like that against us. You just have to bring the energy and communication to avoid it in the future.”

The Lions finished strong and cut the deficit to 71-65 on a 3-pointer by Kelsie Richards, who led the team in scoring with 24. Julia Daavettila scored 16 points and Mikayla Hakala scored 11.

The big lead early on proved to be quite beneficial for the Knights.

“It’s easy as a player to get stagnant sometimes, but we knew as a team we had to keep pushing through and keep fighting,” Schoof said.

MLC resumes action on Friday at North Central.

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