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Northwestern runs past MLC in UMAC

NEW ULM — Martin Luther College fans witnessed Luke Rothe break the MLC mens’ career assist record, but unfortunately the Knights couldn’t defeat the top team in the conference.

Northwestern defeated MLC 81-56 in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference mens’ basketball game on Friday night. With the win, Northwestern became the UMAC conference regular season champions.

Luke Rothe needed four assists to set the record at 371, and he finished the night with just that.

The assist record was previously held by current MLC head coach Greg Holzhueter and Rothe said that the conversation between the two after the game was good.

“He congratulated me right away, few jokes, but all in good fun,” Rothe said. “It’s just cool to have him be in the discussion because even though it’s my fifth year and I’ve been playing a long time — just this year with him — I’ve learned so much more about x’s and o’s and how to put myself in a good position. So he’s helped me a lot.”

Holzhueter said that it’s been great to see Luke set a couple of milestones this year and get back to the point of being able to play after his injuries. He said that Rothe has worked so hard and has been such an unselfish player that it was perfect that he got the record.

Ian Paulsen led the Knights (1-23, 0-15 UMAC) with 11 points and nine rebounds. Also for the Knights, Rothe had nine points to go along with his four assists. Jeffrey Parker also added nine points.

Anderson Bazile Jr. led the Eagles (18-6, 13-2) with 18 points, while Will Gisler had 13 points and 14 rebounds for the double-double. Porter Morrell also chipped in 13 points.

The Knights went toe-to-toe with the Eagles early on, matching bucket for bucket and finishing the first five minutes of play tied at 10-10. The Eagles then went on a 13-2 run before a bucket by Parker stopped it.

Bazile Jr. hit a 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 34-21 lead, but the Knights answered back with back-to-back 3s of their own by Rothe and Parker. MLC trailed 43-30 at the half.

Early in the second half, after the Rothe assist to break the record, Northwestern began to slowly pull away. A Northwestern 3, which made the score 55-38, prompted Holzhueter to burn a timeout.

Things didn’t improve much for MLC after the timeout, though, as Northwestern took a 61-41 lead minutes later and began to run away with the win.

Holzhueter said that Northwestern is a bigger, stronger team and it showed during the game. He said that his guys need to get in the gym this offseason and continue to work on developing their game individually. He was proud of how his guys fought though.

“I think we competed hard, but they’re conference champions for a reason,” Holzhueter said. “They’re a really good ball club and it’s well deserved.”

MLC ends its season when it hosts North Central at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

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