ST. PAUL - The Martin Luther College men's basketball team opened Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) play with a 91-72 defeat at Northwestern-St. Paul (UNW) on Saturday.

The Knights trailed 48-36 at the half as the Eagles worked their advantage underneath. UNW shot 59.6 percent in the first half while out-scoring MLC 38-18 in the paint and out-rebounding the Knights 21-8 (leading to a 12-2 advantage in second-chance points).

MLC kept within distance to start the second half, cutting the deficit to 66-59 with 12:26 to play in the game, but UNW put the game away with a 12-1 run over the next 5:30 on the way to the win.

The Eagles finished the game shooting 57.4 percent from the field and out-scored the Knights 62-34 in the paint for the game. MLC shot 43.5 percent overall, and struggled to shoot 7-26 from downtown. 

First-year wing Ezra Blumer continued the strong start to his collegiate career with a team-best 20 points on 6-9 shooting (including 5-8 from beyond the three-point arc).

Three other players joined Blumer in double figures, led by Joey Behm's 16 points, along with Jack Heichelbech (12 points) and Jacob Price (10 points and a team-high seven rebounds).

MLC fell to 0-2 on the season and 0-1 in league play in defeat. UNW improved to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in UMAC play with the win.

The Knights will return to action on Monday, February 1, when they travel to Bethany Lutheran for a game scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. That contest was originally scheduled to be played on February 24, but was bumped up to Monday.