ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. - The Martin Luther College women's basketball team broke into the win column with a 63-55 victory at Crown College on Wednesday.

The game was ugly to start for the Knights as the Storm built a 17-6 lead after one quarter, but MLC opened the second quarter with a 12-0 run to erase the deficit and trailed by only one point (33-32) heading into halftime.

After scoring 26 points in the second quarter, the MLC defense started to take over in the second half, holding Crown to just 7-30 shooting (23.3 percent) overall and 0-8 from beyond the three-point arc in the final two quarters.

The game was still tight heading down the stretch, with the Knights clinging to a 56-53 lead with 3:32 to play, but Emily Witkowski and Cassandra Rose combined for seven straight points in the final minutes to secure the eight-point win.

MLC struggled from three-point range to start (0-7 in the first quarter) and end (1-8 in the fourth quarter) the game, but overcame the early deficit thanks to seven three-point field goals in the middle two quarters. Kortney Behnke made all three of her attempts from downtown, while Witkowski and Erika Gosch each made two threes in the game.

Witkowski finished as the Knights' leading scorer with 19 points to go with five assists. Gosch and Behnke joined her in double figures with 11 points apiece, while Emily Rothfuss and Kati Aguilar each recorded a pair of blocks.

MLC improved to 1-13 on the season and 1-5 in UMAC play with the win. Crown fell to 4-10 overall and 1-6 in league play in defeat. 

The Knights will return to action on Saturday, January 18, when they travel to Northland College for a game scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m.