Unfortunately for the Knights, a 16-0 run by the Cougars in the first half and Pieper’s hot hand was more than enough to lift the Cougars to a 106-91 win Wednesday at MLC.

Pieper finished with a game-high 45 points, the second-most points in a game by a UMM player behind Roger Schnaser, who scored 51 against the Ellendale State Teachers in 1966.

Carvin Fish added 20 points for UMM, while Matt Thompson and Thomas Tiernan each had 10.

The Cougars dominated the final seven minutes and change of the first half, building a 62-43 lead at halftime.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College’s Ben Vasold takes the ball to the hoop in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball game against the University of Minnesota Morris on Wednesday night at MLC.

A free throw by Tiernan with 7:21 left in the opening half ignited what ended up being a 16-0 run for UMM. Pieper’s jumper with 4:42 left in the half was the final bucket of that big run.

The Knights didn’t allow another big run after that 16-0 run and ended up outscoring the Cougars 48-44 in the second half, but that first half made it tough on the Knights to come back.

Adam Loberger was one of five Knights in double figures as he scored 27 points and added eight rebounds, while Ben Pearson had 14 points and nine rebounds and Ben Vasold had 14 points and four assists. Tom Balge added 13 points, while Ethan Kjenstad had 12 points.

The Knights started off on the right foot with layups from Vasold and Loberger to take a quick 4-0 lead, but UMM was quick to answer and took a 14-8 lead after a 3 from Fish. Luke Fix and Vasold had putback buckets to tie the game up, but Gustav Gunderson put UMM back in front with a pair of free throws. After a layup by Pearson tied the game again, the Cougars got a 3 from Alexander Munson to take the lead back.

The Knights never got closer to the Cougars than 2 points after that as Pieper caught fire. Pieper had 10 of his team’s points during that 16-0 run and had 29 points in the first half.

UMM pushed its lead to 21 to start the second half with free throws from Fish, but MLC chipped it down to 14 with a quick 7-0 run that included an and-one by Balge and two layups by Pearson. UMM increased its lead to as much as 24 in the second half, but MLC again made a push and cut its deficit to 13, 78-65, after free throws from Balge.

A 3 by Kjenstad in the final two minutes had MLC down 101-91, but UMM added the final 5 points of the game on free throws to hold on.

MLC (6-9, 0-1) hosts Crown on Saturday in another UMAC game, while UMM (6-7, 1-0) is at Gustavus for a nonconference game on Saturday.