Staff photo by Ari Selvey Martin Luther College’s Ava Stein goes up for a basket during a nonconference women’s basketball game against Hamline University Wednesday at MLC.

NEW ULM — Martin Luther College stayed close with Hamline University for the first half but fell behind in the in the second, losing 77-61 in a nonconference women’s basketball game on Wednesday.

The game was tied 32-32 at halftime, but the Knights were outscored 21-15 in the third and 24-14 in the fourth.

“They’re just so fast and deep,” MLC head coach Dan Gawrisch said. “They have really good athletes that, whether their shots are falling or not, they’re playing extremely hard defensively. Extremely physical on rebounds. All-in-all, I’m really proud of our team. I thought that was a really great game for us. This is a really good opponent. Certainly room to improve. We have to get healthy, we have to get our conditioning up to speed. Still early in the season for us with limited time together. Overall, when we took care of the ball, we showed we can go toe-to-toe with a really good team.”

MLC lost the rebound battle 39-22 and the turnover battle 15-12, resulting in nine more shots for Hamline. The Knights struggled to move the ball at times against Hamline’s tough defense, with the Pipers doubling the ballhandler at the point of attack and mixing up its defensive looks as MLC turned it over 15 times.

“It was just a good experience for us early in the season, seeing a variety of different defenses,” Gawrisch said. “They switched up their press looks often and brought surprise traps. Sometimes they stuck with it in the half court. We have to do a better job of recognizing that. In the fourth quarter, I thought we did really well with it. There were a couple of lags in the second and halfway through the third. Part of that is fatigue, but we didn’t have the off-ball movement. We didn’t have cutters in the middle like we normally would. Those are all correctable things, so we’ll get it straight.”

Ava Stein led the Knights with 17 points and three rebounds, while Wilhelmina Wenz had 14 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Mya Morris added 9 points and four assists, and Lydia Feidt had 9 points and three steals.

The game started close, with Hamline going up 15-10 on a 3-pointer by Lauren Cooper. MLC fought back to a 15-14 deficit after a free throw from Ava Walz, but Hamline extended it back to 17-14 on a putback from Mariana LaFreniere before the end of the first quarter.

MLC tied it up in the second after a 3-pointer from Wenz and a free throw from Feidt, and the teams battled throughout the quarter. The Pipers built up a 28-23 lead by the time the Knights called a timeout with 3:31 to play in the half, but the Knights worked to tie the game once more at 30 on a baseline jumper from Ella Schmidt. A layup from Stein maintained that tie as the score stood at 32-32 at halftime.

MLC took the initial advantage in the second half, going up 44-40 on a corner 3-pointer from Wenz, but the Pipers went on an 18-3 run going through the quarter break to take a 58-47 lead. Taylor Klement hit four 3-pointers during the stretch, powering the Pipers defense. MLC managed to get the lead down to 63-58 after a run of scoring by Stein, but Hamline finished the game out with a 14-3 run to win.

MLC (2-2) travels to Maranatha Baptist University on Friday.