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MLC Men Upset Vikings
NEW ULM, Minn. - The MLC men's basketball team took a big first half lead and held strong down the stretch to beat rival Bethany Lutheran 78-71 Tuesday night.
Galen Holzhueter had 26 points in a win over BLC
The Knights came out on fire, taking a 7-0 lead on a pair of shots by Galen Holzhueter and a three-pointer by Justin Eternick.
MLC would continue to roll, building the lead as high as 18 points with 6:08 to play in the first half, and finished the half ahead 45-34.
BLC made a run in the second, slowly cutting the MLC lead to just one point at 72-71 with 1:06 to play.
The Knights held strong, however, as Kaleb Buch, Eternick and Holzhueter made six straight free throw attempts in the final 35 seconds of the game, while the team got stops on each of the final four BLC possessions to close out the win.
Holzhueter had a big night offensively, scoring 26 points on 9-17 shooting from the field and 8-10 shooting from the free throw line. He also finished with four of the Knights' 13 steals on the night.
Buch also came up big, scoring 19 points and making all seven of his shots (including three three-pointers) from the field. He also went 2-2 from the free throw line, and finished with seven rebounds and three steals.
Rebounding was a key for the Knights throughout the game, as MLC outrebounded the Vikings 40-26. The Knights finished with 20 offensive rebounds, four of which came from Craig Wilke off the bench in only 14 minutes. Josh Danell joined Buch with the team lead with six rebounds.
With the win, MLC improved to 3-16 on the season and 2-6 in UMAC play, while BLC dropped to 7-11 overall and 5-3 in league play.
The Knights will return to action on Friday, February 1, when they travel to Northland for a game scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.