trosenau@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — The Martin Luther College Knights put together a strong shooting night and controlled the boards, but one too many turnovers and a clutch 3 in the last second spoiled their home opener Friday night.

With a clutch 3 from the corner by JJ Semanko, the Augsburg University Auggies overcame a 9-point deficit in the final minute of play to earn a 91-89 comeback victory over the Knights in a nonconference men’s basketball game.

Semanko finished the night with a team-high 24 points and nine rebounds for the Auggies (1-0).

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College’s Trey Lauber (10) dribbles the ball into the paint during a nonconference men’s basketball game against Augsburg University Friday night at MLC.

MLC (0-1) won the battle on the glass with 35 rebounds to Augsburg’s 24, but the Knights also turned it over 17 times to the Auggies’ 10 turnovers. The Auggies ended up getting 22 points off of those MLC turnovers.

“Augsburg really cranked up the pressure in the last two minutes and made it difficult for us to get the ball in or for us to advance the ball, so you’ve got to give credit to them,” Knights head coach Greg Holzhueter said. “But we also could have executed our full-court inbounds better as well. We got caught really flat on the baseline a number of times where we just didn’t have any space to operate.

“So, that’s something that we’ll be able to see on film Monday when we get back together and we’ll certainly simulate that in practice next week as well, add an additional defense, go six on five against us and help our guys be more comfortable and confident and execute better in that situation.”

The Knights had six players in double figured despite the loss, led by Adam Loberger’s 26 points. Ben Pearson added 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Trey Lauber had 14 points and seven rebounds, Ben Vasold had 12 points and four assists, Luke Fix had 12 points and five rebounds and Ethan Kjenstad had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Loberger hit the front end of a pair of free throws late to put the Knights up 9, 86-77, with 59 seconds to play, but a pair of free throws on the other end by Semanko helped start a last-minute Auggies comeback. After Trent Gomez stole the ball on a full-court press by Augsburg, he buried the 3 to have the Auggies down 86-81.

Loberger was fouled and hit both of his free throws this time to make it an 88-81 game. Another Augsburg 3, this time by Keenan Rodriguez, who finished 14 points in the game, had the Auggies down 88-84. Another MLC turnover seconds later off an Augsburg press led to another 3 by Gomez to have the Auggies down 88-87 with 22 seconds left.

Trey Lauber put the Knights up 2 after hitting one of two free throws, but a shooting foul sent Semanko to the line for a chance to tie it up with 4 seconds to play. Semanko made the first and missed the second, but he rebounded his own miss and dribbled to the corner, where he buried a 3 with less than a second to go.

After a timeout, the Knights were left with .8 on the clock to get something to happen, but their inbounds pass down the court was intercepted at the buzzer to end the game.

Augsburg, a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team, got the win in the end, but the Knights made them work for it in more ways than one.

“[Augsburg is] a good team,” Holzhueter said. “The MIAC, if you’re in a position to be up 9 late in the game against a team that was in the MIAC tournament last year, that shows a lot of potential with the team that we have, so I’m very encouraged and hopeful and optimistic based on tonight, even though it was a really heartbreaking end. What it points to – to me – is that there’s a lot of potential for this team and we’re only going to keep getting better.”

The Knights looked good in the first half, taking an 8-point lead twice, 19-11 and 21-13, on layups from Lauber and Pearson, but the Auggies hung around thanks to some turnovers they forced with their full-court pressure. A 3 by Rodriguez with less than six minutes to go in the opening half had them up 34-33, their first lead since being up 2-0 to open the game.

A layup in the closing seconds of the half by Semanko had the Auggies up 45-42 at halftime.

Elias Batala added 15 points for Augsburg, which shot 53.1% from the floor.

Despite the loss, Holzhueter was happy with the way his players moved the ball around and found good looks as they shot 51.6% from the floor.

“That was what I was most happy with tonight was how well the guys shared the ball with each other,” Holzhueter said. “Tuesday night in our exhibition contest [an 84-62 loss at Waldorf], we didn’t play good team basketball in that game, and so everybody took a good, hard look at the film together and the guys worked hard on Wednesday in practice and Thursday trying to see the opportunity to share the ball more.

“For us to grow as much as we did tonight, one game to the next, that was awesome to see. The guys really took to heart wanting to play together over individual basketball, and I think they were rewarded tonight with a good performance and I’m hoping then that that means on Tuesday night, we’re back at it, we can play good team basketball again and get a win out of it.”

The Knights host Saint Mary’s University at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in another nonconference game.