St. Bonifacius, MN - The Martin Luther College men's basketball team took on Crown on Friday night in an away game. The Knights hung in the game for the first 20 minutes of action and headed into halftime down just 38-37, but the Polars doubled up MLC 50-25 in the second half to take the 88-62 win.

The men shot the ball well in the first half, shooting 44.83 percent on 13-29. The Polars opened the game up in the second half by making a concerted effort to get the ball to the paint off of drives to the hoop. In just over five minutes off the clock, Crown went on a 15-2 run to take their biggest lead of the game (54-39) as Cade Carroll gave his team a spark to pull ahead. 

From there, the Knights gave it their all to trim the deficit down, but the depth of the Polars proved to be too much and Crown held on to for the double-digit victory.

Carroll entered the game leading the UMAC in scoring (18.8 ppg) and second in rebounding (8.6). On Friday, Carroll demonstrated his skillset with 15 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Polars. Tyus Buckner also tacked on a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards.

Ethan Kjenstad paced MLC with 19 points, while Seth Veers collected 11 points.

Crown would only shoot 18.5 percent from distance, while MLC shot 30 percent, but the Polars gained their advantage in points off turnovers (22-2) and outgained the Knights 54-36 in the paint.

Crown extended their winning streak to six games, while MLC (1-11, 1-3) will turn around to face Minnesota Morris on Saturday, January 13 at 4:45 p.m.