Staff photo by Ari Selvey Martin Luther College’s Adam Loberger puts up a shot during an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball game against Crown College Wednesday at MLC.

By Ari Selvey

aselvey@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — Martin Luther College fell by a single bucket to Crown College on Wednesday after controlling the lead for the majority of the game, losing 78-76 in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball game.

MLC held a 71-70 lead late, but a turnover in the final minute led to a game-winning layup from Crown’s Micah Ladd.

Ben Pearson led the Knights with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Adam Loberger had 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Luke Fix and Thomas Balge each had 9 points.

Pearson started the night off hot, scoring 10 of the Knights’ first 14 points, including two 3-pointers to open the game. That led to a 14-3 lead for MLC, but Crown worked back to cut the lead down to 22-18 on a layup from John Gribsby. MLC rebuilt the lead back to 27-18 after a 3-pointer from Trey Lauber, and the teams traded buckets for several minutes. MLC held a 34-26 lead as Crown called a timeout with 5:15 to play and were able to push it out to 46-30 on a pair of free throws from Balge. MLC was able to take a 50-35 lead into halftime.

Cron started the second half with a 10-5 run, cut short by a pair of free throws from Seth Veers. Crown’s Carter Behne cut the lead to single digits with a 3-pointer, then Carter Behne hit a floater to make it a 57-50 game. Loberger responded with a layup, but Crown continued to score until the lead was down to 71-70 after a 3-pointer from Parker Behne. Crown took its first lead of the game with a layup from Parker Behne, drawing a timeout from MLC with 3:47 to play. Crown increase d that lead with a pair of free throws from Tyrus Buckner, but Pearson hit a step back jumper and Fix took the lead by converting an and-one with 1:05 to play.

However, Parker Behne hit a layup with 12 seconds to play, and turnover led to Micah Ladd with just 1.1 seconds to go gave Crown the win.

MLC (7-15, 2-9) hosts Minnesota Morris on Saturday at 1 p.m.