File photo by Travis Rosenau From this Feb. 5 file photo, Martin Luther College’s Emma Dorn dribbles to the hoop during a women’s basketball game against Bethany Lutheran College at MLC.

Courtesy of Adam Hussman/MLC SID

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MLC 63, North Central 59

MINNEAPOLIS — Martin Luther College fifth-year senior Emma Dorn hit the 1,000-point milestone in the Knights’ 63-59 victory over North Central on Wednesday night.

Dorn was 11 points shy of the achievement and finished with 13 points to help the Knights complete the season sweep of the Rams. MLC broke things open in the second quarter by going on a 22-2 run to take a 35-22 lead heading into the break. The Knights got what they wanted offensively in those 10 minutes, and Mya Morris caught fire from 3-point territory, hitting three of them, and the sophomore led MLC with a double-double (24 points, 10 rebounds).

MLC made it a 16-point advantage to start the third quarter, making it their biggest lead of the contest after Dorn connected from the outside. However, North Central didn’t back down and let the Knights blow them out and chipped away at the deficit to eventually cut it to 48-43 after the third quarter.

The Rams carried that momentum into the fourth quarter and regained the lead 50-48 for the first time since the beginning of the second quarter. Both teams would exchange buckets for the last seven minutes of action, but the Knights bottled down defensively and made key stops to prevent the Rams from coming back. MLC then went on to ice the game away with a pair of made free throws from Dorn and Morris to secure the conference win on the road to preserve their chances of making it to the UMAC tournament.

Grace Kieselhorst finished with four steals to lead the Knights in that category on defense and the Knights forced 19 North Central turnovers, 15 of which came in the first half.

MLC (15-9, 8-5) will now travel to Ashland, Wisconsin, for a road matchup at Northland College on Saturday, February 22, at 4:45 p.m. The Knights will need one more win to still have a shot at the UMAC tournament along with various tiebreaker scenarios that are in play on Saturday.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

North Central 92, MLC 71

MINNEAPOLIS — The Martin Luther College men’s basketball team took on North Central University for the second time this season and aimed to avenge their previous loss to the Rams at the end of January. The Knights kept up with the Rams’ up-tempo pace for the first half, trailing 49-42 at halftime, but North Central’s depth and athleticism proved to be too much, as the Rams beat MLC 92-71.

North Central had a balanced output of production and had four players finish the game in double figures. Point guard Malik Siggers led the charge for the Rams and finished with 20 points, five assists, and two steals. Siggers wasn’t the only guard to stuff the stat sheet, as Remy Wedgeworth Brown recorded 16 points and six assists.

MLC made it competitive to begin the second half and pushed it to a 5-point deficit after Benjamin Pearson knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 57-52 with 14:48 left. However, that would be as close as it would get as the Rams went on a 17-4 scoring run over the next course of the next four minutes of play.

North Central scored 56 of their 92 points in the paint and tallied off 41 bench points in their win. Meanwhile, MLC did shoot well from beyond the arc, going 10-of-24 (41 percent) in the game.

The freshman trio of Pearson (15 points), Adam Loberger (14 points), and Benjamin Vasold (13 points) reached double figures to lead MLC in the scoring column.

MLC (7-17, 2-11 UMAC) will wrap up their season on the road at Northland on Saturday, February 22, at 3 p.m.