Staff photo by Ari Selvey Martin Luther College’s Ethan Kjenstad drives to the basket during a nonconference men’s basketball game against Hamline University Wednesday at MLC.

By Ari Selvey

aselvey@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Hamline University scored the first 10 points of a nonconference men’s basketball game against Martin Luther College and never looked back, going on to win 90-49 on Wednesday.

The Pipers outscored the Knights 42-20 in the first half and 48-29 in the second half, shooting 55% from the field and 56% from 3-point range. Hamline made 10 more 3-pointers and 13 more total shots than the Knights and turned the Knights over 25 times to just 11 for the Pipers.

MLC was without starting point guard Ben Pearson for the game, who is missing time with a hip injury. Luke Fix led the Knights in scoring with 9 points, along with four rebounds, while Ethan Kjenstad added 8 points. Adam Loberger had 8 points and six rebounds.

Loberger snapped the initial scoring run by the Pipers with a putback to make it 10-2 and also had the Knights’ second made shot of the game on a midrange jumper to make it 16-4. The Knights played Hamline even for a few minutes as a driving layup from Kjenstad made it a 22-10 game, but Hamline continued to increase the lead out to 37-15 as MLC called a timeout with 4:18 to play in the first half. Fix made a layup and Loberger made MLC’s first 3-pointer of the game to close out the half down 42-20.

Hamline increased that lead to 47-20 to open the half, though Ben Vasold mad the Knights’ second 3-pointer to cut the lead to 47-23. Fix and Kjenstad both made layups to make it a 49-27 game, but Hamline continued to increase the lead, going on a 9-1 run to go up 69-36. A 10-0 run made it a 87-43 game, cut short by a 3-pointer by Landon Czerwan. One final 3-pointer by MLC’s William Salgat ended the game.

MLC (1-3) travels to play Maranatha Baptist University on Friday.