HANCOCK, Mich. - The Martin Luther College men's basketball team was unable to stop the high-powered offense of Finlandia in a 96-69 loss on Friday.

The shorthanded Knights played well to start the game and trailed 26-24 with 7:10 to play in the first half, but the Lions closed the half with a 27-6 run to take a 23-point lead into the break.

MLC hung around in the second half, but was unable to make a run to erase the deficit as the Lions closed out the win.

Finlandia finished the game shooting 57.1 percent from the field, made 10 of 17 three-point attempts, and also shot 14-16 from the free throw line. The Knights shot 44.4 percent from the field, and were outscored 30-21 beyond the arc and 14-6 at the charity stripe.

Luke Rothe, TJ Babinec and Austin DeNoyer each finished with 13 points to lead MLC. Rothe also added a team-high seven assists, while Phil Bunkowske finished with six assists to go with his nine points.

Rothe's seven assists moved him past Jeff Dolan into second place in program history with 362 for his career. Head Coach Greg Holzhueter holds the school record for career assists with 370.

MLC fell to 1-21 following the loss. Finlandia improved to 5-16 on the season with the win.

The Knights will return to action tomorrow (Saturday, February 11) when they travel to Northland for a game scheduled to start at 5 p.m.