ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. - The Martin Luther College men's basketball team could not overcome a bad start in an 87-58 loss at Crown College on Friday.

The Knights struggled on offense from the jump as the Storm raced to a 17-3 lead through the first eight minutes of the first half. MLC tried to claw back into the game, but still trailed 38-24 at halftime.

Crown put the game away early in the second half with a 20-2 run over the first seven minutes out of the locker room en route to the win.

MLC shot 10-29 from beyond the three-point arc, but just 12-40 on two-point field goals for the game. On the other end, the MLC defense held the Storm to 33.3 percent shooting in the first half, but Crown came back to shoot 63.3 percent after halftime to push that total to 45.3 percent for the game.

Ezra Blumer led MLC with nine points on offense.

MLC fell to 2-14 on the season and 0-6 in UMAC play in defeat. Crown improved to 7-9 overall and 3-2 in league play with the win.

The Knights will return to action tomorrow (Saturday, January 22) when they travel to Minnesota Morris for a game scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m.