MANKATO, Minn - The Martin Luther College women's basketball team saw its season come to an end with a 72-67 loss at Bethany Lutheran College in the opening round of the UMAC Postseason Tournament on Monday.

The game started well for the Knights, as they took advantage of an aggressive BLC defense on the way to a 34-28 halftime lead. The Knights built that lead with the help of 21 attempts from the free throw line, while also holding the Vikings to 28.1 percent shooting from the field.

The Vikings made their big push with 4:05 to play in the third quarter, reversing a four-point MLC lead with a 14-4 run and outscoring the Knights 23-11 for the quarter.

BLC built its largest lead of 12 points with 5:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Knights made one final rally. MLC scored 11 unanswered points, capped by a Mariah Schoof three-pointer with 1:39 to play in the game to cut the BLC lead to one point. The Vikings would respond, however, scoring six unanswered points of their own to put the game out of reach in the closing seconds.

After holding BLC below 30 percent in the first half, the Knights were unable to slow the Vikings' offense after the break as they shot 45.5 percent from the field and went 6-14 from beyond the three-point arc. MLC struggled from the outside, shooting 4-21 from downtown for the game.

Grace Schultz led MLC with 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Schoof added 12 points, while Jade St. Germaine finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Those nine rebounds for St. Germaine tied her for the MLC single-season rebounds record. Her 222 rebounds this season matched the total of Emma Babinec during the 2005-06 season.

The Knights' final record fell to 10-16 following the loss. BLC improved to 13-13 with the win, and advanced to the semifinal round of the conference tournament on Wednesday, February 22, at UW-Superior.