NEW ULM, Minn. - The Martin Luther College men's basketball team opened its season with a 79-63 loss to Saint Mary's (Minn.) on Saturday.

The Knights entered the game shot-handed without five players playing in the football team's NCAA Division III Championship playoff game at Saint John's, but still muscled their way to a 30-26 halftime lead thanks to a suffocating defensive effort that held the Cardinals to 34.5 percent shooting. Richard Eckmann led the way for the Knights with nine first-half points, while Josh Tomlin scored six points off the bench.

SMU pushed back coming out of the locker room, quickly taking control with a 14-5 run to open the second half on the way the building a double-digit lead with 10 minutes to play.

The Knights were able to cut the deficit as low as five points, but that would be as close as they would get as the Cardinals pushed forward for the win.

SMU's Eli Cave was a match-up issue all day for MLC, scoring 35 points on 12-19 shooting while grabbing eight rebounds. He scored 24 of his points in the second half to fuel the Cardinals' comeback.

Ethan Eisemann led MLC with 13 points on 6-9 shooting from the field. Gregory Heichelbech had a strong debut, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds off the bench in 27 minutes.

MLC fell to 0-1 on the season in defeat. SMU improved to 2-1 with the win.

The Knights will return to action on Monday, November 19, when they host Lakeland in a game scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m.