Turnovers for points lead UW-La Crosse past Knights in season opener
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NEW ULM -- Turnovers piled up to hurt the Martin Luther College Knights in their season opener Tuesday night as the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles picked up a 77-46 win in a nonconference women's basketball game.
The Knights committed 22 turnovers in the loss and the Eagles capitalized with 24 points off of those turnovers.
Gabby Ritchie led the Eagles with 16 points and six rebounds, while Lauryn Milne had 14 points, Carly Coulthart had 13 points and Paige Schumann added 8 points, eight assists and four steals.
Emma Nelson led the Knights with 10 points and five rebounds, while Lydia Feidt had 9 points, five assists and two steals. Jordyn Heckendorf added 8 points, five rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals and Lauren Paulsen pulled down eight rebounds.
The Knights were off to a good start, turning a quick 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead after a corner 3 by Nelson and a bucket inside by Grace Kieselhorst. UW-La Crosse kept a press on early, but MLC fought through it and stretched its lead to 16-10.
UW-La Crosse's press started to create more havoc for MLC as the quarter went on, however, as a 10-0 Eagles run was capped off on back-to-back steals for baskets and a 20-16 lead.
MLC started the second quarter out with 3s from Heckendorf and Kieselhorst to lead 24-22, but the Eagles got a 6-0 run after that to erase those 3s. Turnovers continued to hurt the Knights in the second quarter as the Eagles went on an 11-0 run to lead 43-30 with less than two minutes to play in the half.
Kendra Valleau hit the front end of a pair of free throws to end the Eagles' run, but her miss was rebounded by the Knights and turned into a 3-pointer from Heckendorf with less than 10 seconds to go in the half. The 3 was quickly answered with a fastbreak finish to beat the buzzer by Schumann, giving the Eagles a 45-34 halftime lead.
Things began to snowball for the Knights in the second half as the Eagles continued to capitalize on turnovers for a 12-0 run and 64-40 lead late in the third quarter. A free throw by Madeline Walz ended that run and had the Knights down 64-41 after three.
The Knights then hit just 1 of 16 shots in the fourth quarter as UW-La Crosse increased its lead to as much as 31.
MLC (0-1) travels to Milwaukee to take on Mount Mary in another nonconference game at 5 p.m. this Friday.