New Ulm, MN - The Martin Luther College women's basketball team faced off against their rival Bethany to finish the day of basketball. The game did not disappoint as the two teams traded baskets in the final minutes of action, but the Vikings managed to escape the LSC down the stretch with a 56-51 win over MLC.

    The Knights played hard on both ends of the court and dug themselves out of an 11-point deficit, despite Emma Nelson going 2-of-11 in the first half from the field. MLC found creative ways to get baskets and found themselves only down 28-24 at halftime.

    To start the second half, other players for MLC had to step up in the absence of Lydia Feidt and Lauren Paulsen if they were going to stay in the game with Bethany. The Knights did just that with solid play from their forward Kendra Valleau.  The sophomore played a season-high 13 minutes and had a critical play where she displayed nice footwork and executed on a left-handed layup to pull the Knights within two points (34-32). The Vikings had a rebuttal for that game shifting play when Sara Kottke nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 3:10 mark of the third quarter, making it 37-32.

    The Knights would have to battle back again to start the final period and Nelson found her groove when she knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing with 5:52 remaining. The forward then tied the game at 46-46 with a layup on the following possession. 

    The next few minutes saw critical turnovers from both teams and the Knights tied the game up again at the 1:42 mark when Grace Kieselhorst made a layup (53-51). The layup forced a Bethany timeout, where they drew up an iso drive for Kaylee Hunter and the guard connected on the shot, making it 53-51. Following the back and forth sequences, the Knights had a chance to tie the game at 54-54 when Nelson shot an outside jumper, but came up just short which led to a couple of Bethany free throws late to ice the game. 

    MLC had a big bounce back performance from their previous loss to UM-Morris and showed a lot of fight in the second half. However, the Knights shot 29.4 percent from the floor, while the Vikings shot 36.5 percent.

Grace Kielsehorst led MLC with 12 points and six rebounds and picked up 11 points from Jordyn Heckendorf.

With the close loss, MLC now falls to (8-11, 1-7) on the season and will play UW-Superior on Friday, February 3rd at 7:15 p.m.
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