ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. - The Martin Luther College men's basketball team closed its season with a 90-82 defeat at Crown on Saturday.

Like a number of games during this frustrating season, the Knights were in solid position after the first half, trailing by only two points (45-43), and took a 57-54 lead with 14:24 to play following a T.J. Babinec lay-up. 

The Storm would respond with a six-point position thanks to a pair of three-pointers and an MLC foul, and the Knights were forced to play from behind the rest of the way.

Babinec cut the Crown lead to 79-76 following a steal and lay-up with 2:34 to play in the game, but MLC was unable to keep the Storm off the foul line down the stretch, as Crown went 9-11 from the charity stripe following the Babinec basket to put the game away.

MLC shot 42.5 percent from the field, but the Storm shot 49.2 percent, and also made 13 of 29 attempts from beyond the three-point line. The Knights were unable to come up with an answer for either James Brown, who scored 31 points for Crown on 10-17 shooting (including 5-7 from beyond the three-point arc), or Austin Vanderheyden, who finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds.

Todd Brassow led MLC with 27 points. He finished the season with 570 total points, a new MLC men's basketball single-season record. 

Babinec added 20 points and a team-high four assists, while Michael Paulsen scored 19 points, and went 9-12 from the free throw line. Nate Goelzer led MLC with nine rebounds in his first start of the season.

MLC finished the season with a record of 1-24 overall and 1-15 in UMAC play. Crown improved its record to 5-20 overall and 4-12 in conference.