Staff photo by Ari Selvey Martin Luther College’s Anna Keiselhorst shoots over a defender during an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball game against Crown College Wednesday at MLC.

NEW ULM — Martin Luther College held Crown College to just 22 first half points and 56 in the game for a 72-56 win Wednesday in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference women’s basketball game.

MLC held the polars to just 30.8% shooting from the floor and 29.7% from 3 while forcing 13 turnovers from Crown.

The win also halted a three-game losing skid for the Knights as MLC improved to 14-8 overall and 7-4 in conference.

Lauren Paulson led the Knights with 19 points with five 3-pointers and 14 rebounds. Emma Dorn added 11 points, while Ava Stein had 10 points and four rebounds.

Paulson took the lead for MLC early, scoring MLC’s first 8 points. Unfortunately, that’s all the scoring the Knights could muster in the first quarter as the period ended in an 8-8 tie. MLC was able to generate plenty of offense in the second quarter, however, swapping to a full-court press on defense. The defense forced multiple Crown turnovers, leading to buckets in transition for the Knights. This caused a Crown timeout 1:27 into the second as MLC had a 13-11 lead, which they took to a 24-14 lead on a transition layup from Mya Morris. MLC continued to score, going up 29-20 on an and-one by Stein and 38-22 on a 3-pointer from Dorn before the halftime break.

Crown fought back to start the second half, going on a 7-3 run to open, but a mid-range jumper from Grace Kieselhorst stopped the run. MLC held a 59-44 lead after three quarters. Crown once again started strong in the fourth quarter, going on a 6-0 run but a 3-pointer from Morris made it a 62-44 game. After a 3-pointer from Crown’s Sydney Cotten, MLC responded with a pair of layups form Lydia Feidt and Morris to make it a 66-49 game and force a Crown timeout with 3:33 to play. Paulson scored one more 3-pointer as the Knights were working the clock for the 72-56 win.

MLC hosts Minnesota Morris for its final home game of the season on Saturday before traveling to North Central on Wednesday and Northland College on Feb. 22 to close out the regular season.