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Minnesota Morris topples MLC men

Knights fall 103-79 despite hitting 15 3-pointers

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Martin Luther College’s Austin DeNoyer (15) takes a shot as Jeremy Halverson of the University of Minnesota Morris defends on the play during the second half Wednesday at MLC in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Despite knocking down 15 3-pointers, the Martin Luther College men’s basketball team fell to the University of Minnesota Morris 103-79 on Wednesday in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference action.

The Cougars (6-8, 5-1) dominated inside with 48 points in the paint, while the Knights (2-12, 1-5) had 22 in the paint. Minnesota Morris shot 56.1 percent from the field and 52.2 percent from beyond-the-arc, while MLC shot 37.7 percent from the field and 40.5 percent from 3.

With 15 3-pointers, MLC was just one triple shy from tying the school record for team 3s in a game. Even with the long ball falling, though, it wasn’t enough to get the job done against Minnesota Morris, who were led by CD Douglas with 33 points and Noah Grove with 26.

“The difference tonight — as I told the guys — was we just weren’t up to the task defensively,” MLC coach Greg Holzhueter said. “They basically got to do whatever they wanted to do on offense — and if you wanna win games — you have to be able to force the offense to do something that’s outside their comfort zone.”

After a 3 by Grove, the Cougars took a 17-7 lead with less than 15 minutes to go in the first half. In the first six Cougar buckets, five of the field goals were on 3s.

MLC then cut the deficit to 24-22 after a 3 each by Jared Witkowiak and Nate Lindloff and a layup by Ian Paulsen. The Cougars went on another late run, though, and led 51-39 at halftime.

Lindloff led the Knights with 17 points, five 3s, while Witkowiak had 16 points and five assists. Richard Eckmann added 14 points, four 3s, and nine rebounds for MLC, while Paulsen added 10 points, all coming in the first half.

Paulsen came up limping after a hard fall in the first half and was forced out the rest of the game as a result.

Minnesota Morris opened things up early in the second half and after a 3-pointer by Douglas, led 76-50 with 11:44 left to play. The Knights didn’t roll over, however, as Lindloff knocked down back-to-back 3s to cut the Knights’ deficit to 20.

A trio of 3s by Lindloff, Ethan Eisenmann and Joey Behm cut the MLC deficit down to 12 with a little more than six minutes to play, but Minnesota Morris quickly regrouped with a 10-0 run to lead 92-70. The Cougars then continued to keep distance on the Knights for the remaining minutes of the game.

“I was very happy with those runs that we made,” Holzhueter said. “We could have very easily folded and let the game get out of hand, but the guys kept playing hard and they kept playing aggressively on the offensive end. It was fun to see them get it back down to 12, and those type of runs and the way we played during those runs is the way that we have to play consistently for a whole game to beat a team like Morris.”

The Knights will host Northwestern on Saturday.

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