Courtesy of Adam Hussman/MLC SID

SUPERIOR, Wis. — The Martin Luther College women’s basketball team met up with UW-Superior on Wednesday night for their first UMAC tournament appearance since the 2016-17 season and gave the Yellowjackets all they could handle. MLC didn’t back down despite and overcame some adversity on multiple occasions and forced the game into overtime.

The game was 66-66 after four periods of play, but UW-Superior took the overtime period 14-9 and hung on to defeat the Knights 80-75 to advance to the UMAC Tournament final against No. 2 seed Northwestern.

Emma Dorn kept the Knights in the game in the first half, finishing with 16 of her game-high 25 points in the first half. Dorn gave MLC an early 3-0 lead on a 3-pointer on the Knights’ opening possession of the game, but the Yellowjackets controlled the first quarter from there, shooting 69 percent to allow them to take a 20-4 lead before MLC trimmed it to 24-12 at the end of the first.

MLC played much better on both ends of the court in the second quarter, making the contest a tight one. They headed into halftime down 35-32, shooting 61 percent from the floor in the period.

UW-Superior went up by as many as 11 points midway through the third quarter before MLC closed the gap with a Lauren Paulsen 3-pointer right before the buzzer, making it 51-46.

In the fourth quarter, both teams exchanged clutch shots from beyond the arc, and the Knights tied the game on several occasions. MLC shot 62.5 percent from deep as Mya Morris and Dorn connected on multiple 3-pointers, with Dorn tying it up 63-63 with over a minute left, while Morris hit the last 3-pointer to even it up 66-66 with 39 seconds remaining in regulation. MLC had an opportunity to walk out of Superior with the win as they held for the last shot as the shot clock had turned off, but the Yellowjackets forced a turnover with two seconds to stay alive.

The Yellowjackets hit two critical shots from Mykenzie Leccia and Elsa Olsen in overtime to seal the win for their team.

Morris finished with 23 points on five made 3-pointers as she and Dorn had 48 of MLC’s 75 points.

Despite the loss, MLC finished the season 16-10 overall, 9-5 UMAC, and had the program’s most wins in a season since the 2011-12 team that made the NCAA tournament.