Hitting at a similar clip to what they did last Friday in a season-opening loss at home to Augsburg, the Knights committed six fewer turnovers on Tuesday against the Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota Cardinals as they earned an 88-81 win in a nonconference men’s basketball game.

The Knights (1-1) shot 53.4% Friday in a heartbreaking 91-89 loss to the Auggies, but they committed 17 turnovers, three in the final minute that helped the Auggies stage a comeback after trailing 9. MLC shot 48.4% in Tuesday’s win over the Cardinals (0-2), but the Knights took care of the ball better and improved their shooting in the second half to seal the win.

Adam Loberger led the Knights with 29 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Ben Pearson had 15 points and nine rebounds. Ben Vasold had 14 points and six assists, while Ethan Kjenstad had 12 points and four rebounds.

Sawyer Markham, Reid Weckwerth and Abraham Kamara each had 15 points for the Cardinals, while Reid Klug added 14 points and 6-8 forward Jackson Harvey had 12 points and 20 rebounds.

Pearson, who graduated Minnesota Valley Lutheran in 2024 after making single-season school record 96 3-pointers, hit one 3 out of three tries Tuesday. Getting in the paint more has been more of a goal for Pearson, however, this season.

“I made a point this summer to make sure and hit the weight room and to get stronger so I was able to attack, especially with the pace of play that’s in college compared to high school,” Pearson said. “So just adjusting to the physicality of the college level would be something that I have strived to get better at in the offseason.”

Pearson also played a team-high 37 minutes and led the Knights again on the boards after grabbing 10 last Friday. While he didn’t have an assist, he had just two turnovers and drew five fouls while working the ball around effectively.

“I was able to get to the paint and able to distribute the ball to where it needed to be and then that was one more pass,” Pearson said. “It wasn’t an assist or whatever, but just getting an advantage off of getting to the lane was probably the biggest part.”

Kjenstad, one of three MLC seniors, knocked down a pair of 3s in the game without a turnover.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College’s Ethan Kjenstad shoots the ball inside in traffic during a nonconference men’s basketball game against the University of Saint Mary’s on Tuesday at MLC.

“I really try to be a big man that can stretch the floor and shoot 3s,” Kjenstad said. “I think that’s really important, especially for me, because it forces the defender sometimes to have a hard closeout and then I can get to the rack. I really worked on my sprint speed, foot speed this summer, try to get them down the floor a little faster and beat the other team’s bigs up and down the floor. I feel like it kind of fits the way we want to play because we’ve got five guys on the floor that can all shoot it, put it on the floor, and I feel like we’re a really hard to team to beat because we’re all quick, we can all get to the rim and we can all hit the 3.”

Trailing by 8 in the first half after getting into a bit of a funk offensively, the Knights hung around and cut their deficit to 38-35 at halftime after a buzzer-beating jumper by Vasold. The Knights shot 38.2% in the first half, resulting in just two first-half leads after a 3 from Austin Erickson put them up 10-9 and a layup by Loberger put them ahead 15-14.

Despite the first-half shooting woes, the Knights rebounded the ball well and played tough enough defense to stay in it.

The Knights got a layup from Pearson and a 3 from Kjenstad to take a 40-32 lead less than a minute into the second half. The teams traded buckets for several minutes after that until a 6-0 run that had two layups from Loberger and one from Kjenstad put the Knights up 52-47 with 13:04 left to play.

Pearson’s lone 3 of the night gave the Knights a 60-57 lead with 10 minutes left and that ended up being the closest the Cardinals got from there out as MLC cashed in at the foul line, going 13 for 13 in the second half at the charity stripe and making 18 of 19 in the game.

After a layup from senior Luke Fix and an and-one from Vasold, the Knights stretched their lead to 70-62. The Knights’ biggest lead came in the final minute, 84-75, after a pair of free throws from Loberger.

The Knights also got 7 points from Trey Lauber, while Fix added 6 points, five rebounds and three assists.

MLC next travels to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, for a 7 p.m. nonconference matchup against Lakeland University on Friday night.