New Ulm, MN - Japheth Nyamari heaved it from halfcourt and the ball hit the court as time expired. The MLC student section quickly emptied their seats and no, not in a race to head back to the library for a late-night study session in preparation for their upcoming semester exams, but rather to storm the court in pure celebration.

Their excitement was a result of the men's basketball team upsetting an undefeated Northwestern team 77-70. 

With the win, MLC men's basketball achieved its first win over the Eagles since February 16, 2008 (81-68) and just the third win against Northwestern since the turn of the century. Head Coach Greg Holzhueter was a point guard for that squad and his teammate, Jacob Schwartz, finished with 26 points to lead the 07-08 Knights to victory. MLC went on to win the UMAC regular season championship that season.

On Friday, the Knights received a huge lift from the crowd and it started things off with a pair of 3-pointers from Ethan Kjenstad and Micah Kieselhorst to take a 15-9 lead six minutes into the game.

"We were saying it all week, but this is the toughest place to play in the conference," the Northwestern coaching staff said of the MLC student section.

Both teams settled in defensively, but the Eagles eventually found some more offense as the first half progressed and took a 35-33 lead at halftime. However, MLC managed to stay in the game thanks to a 22-17 rebounding advantage.

The second half saw both schools trading blows, as there was a tie or lead change on nearly every possession. At the 7:22 mark, the Eagles went up 59-58 after a Ryan Schneider 3-pointer, but the Knights answered back with a 9-2 scoring run over the next couple of minutes to take their biggest lead of the game 69-61. The run was highlighted by a Kieselhorst 3-pointer from the top of the key, followed by a Paul Frick breakaway steal and layup.

Henry Fahnbulleh (21 points, 3 steals) would silence the crowd momentarily and displayed his will and touch near the basket to keep Northwestern alive.

From there, the Knights maintained a tight 69-68 lead and Kieselhorst once again stepped up and hit a dagger beyond the arc to make it 72-68 with 1:45 left in the game. The score remained the same with 37 seconds left and the Knights made one final hustle play when Seth Veers secured an offensive rebound off of a Thomas Balge missed free throw. With the rebound, MLC was able to officially seal the deal and defeated a Northwestern team that was off to its best start in modern program history.

Kieselhorst had a team-high 21 points and nine rebounds and shot 4-of-6 from deep. Balge gave a tough-nosed effort and made winning plays near the rim. The sophomore attacked the basket all game long and dropped 19 points, five rebounds, and two blocks.

MLC was rounded out by Kjenstad's 10 points and Veers' nine points, as both players came up with timely plays on both ends of the court. As a team, MLC shot 30-of-65 (46.2 percent) from the floor.

Coach Holzhueter thought his team battled hard to get this win and said, "This was a hard-fought and well deserved win for our players. In every moment tonight where they were required to respond to a run or impactful play of a very good Northwestern team, they did. A win like this builds confidence for the challenge of conference play."

The Knights (1-6, 1-0) will look to keep the momentum going with an afternoon contest tomorrow afternoon when they face North Central at 4:45 p.m. in the LSC.