“They just continued to make shots from deep,” MLC head coach Dan Gawrisch said. “Our scouting report and what we prepared for was to take away the drive and take away the lane, then rebound like crazy. They were relentless in their rebounding effort, and we won the rebounding battle, so we’re OK with that, but it’s tough to keep the legs under you on defense when you see shot after shot go in.”

Lakeland shot 50% from 3-point range and 46.6% from the field, while MLC shot 20% from 3 and 32.9% from the field.

Ava Stein led the Knights with 13 points and 9 rebounds, while Mya Morris had 13 points, four rebounds and four steals. Lydia Feidt added 12 points, four rebounds and four steals.

MLC had 15 steals as a team as Lakeland turned the ball over 30 times, but MLC was unable to capitalize, losing the points off of turnovers battle 27-18 despite committing seven fewer turnovers.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Martin Luther College’s Ava Walz drives into the paint during a nonconference women’s basketball game against Lakeland University Wednesday at MLC.

“We forced 30 turnovers tonight, and it’s not very often that we’re going to force 30 turnovers and lose the game,” Gawrisch said. “Proud of our defensive effort with whatever defense we ran. We executed it well, forced turnovers. Now we’ve got to take the next step and convert those turnovers … Last game, away at Carlton, we shot the lights out, inside and outside against a really good team, and I think you saw them do that to us today, and that’s just the game of basketball.”

The Knights started the game slow, falling behind 13-9 on a 3-pointer by Lakeland’s Jenna Shea, her first of four on the night. MLC went down 17-11 after the first quarter on a 3 from Sydney Nimsakont. Lakeland got up by as much as 28-17 before MLC called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Knights came out stronger on defense and with a more efficient offense as they worked to get back into the game.

“I think the biggest thing is we got the ball to the rim more,” Gawrisch said. “We started looking for the drive, we got the drive and finish. We started looking for the cuts and posts to get the ball to the rim and finish strong. With that it started to open up outside and we knocked down a couple of 3s. Defensively, we brought great effort and we put on the press.”

MLC went on a 11-0 run, led by a pair of layups by Feidt and a 3 from Ella Schmidt to tie the game at 30. The knights took their first lead of the game after a free throw from Feidt, but Lakeland recaptured it with a 3 from Sadie Grabow, but MLC got it right back with a 3 from Morris to go into halftime up 34-33.

The two teams battled back and forth to begin the second half, with MLC taking a 44-42 on a putback from Stein, but Lakeland went back up 47-44 on a layup from Madeline Sasis. MLC tied it again with a 3 from Ella Walz, but Lakeland finished the quarter up 52-49 after a layup from Lauryn Johnson.

Lakeland started the fourth quarter with a 3 from Alexis Johnson and continued to build from there, making four more 3-pointers during the quarter as the Knights fell behind.

“We did a great job in stretches of pounding the paint and getting the ball inside to Ava or Lydia posting up strong with ball movement and spacing,” Gawrisch said. “And then there was stretches where we did not do that and our spacing would be off. If we can keep it spaced and we can keep looking to get it inside in situations where it’s not falling from outside, the opportunity’s there, we just have to take advantage of that.”

MLC (7-5) picks up play again on Jan. 5 as they host Viterbo.