Minneapolis, MN - The Martin Luther College women's basketball team picked up an important win on the road against North Central on Friday evening. The Knights avenged their double-digit loss to the Rams in January by taking control of the fourth quarter to defeat North Central 68-61.

With the win, MLC moves up in the UMAC standings and is now in a fourth-place tie with the Rams. The Knights also extended their winning streak to six games, which is the longest streak under Head Coach Dan Gawrisch.

The first half saw both teams fight tooth and nail on both ends of the court and as a result, neither team led by more than three points. Ella Walz would break a 21-21 tie with the only 3-pointer of the half, but the Rams would take a one-point lead at the break after Kaitlyn Vanderploeg (17 points, 11 rebounds) finished near the basket to give her team the 27-26 lead.

Both teams came out aggressive in the second half and the lead would change on several occasions. Jordyn Heckendorf ended the third quarter with some positive momentum for MLC and put the Knights up 42-40 on a pull up 3-point jump shot.

That momentum carried over into the final period and MLC found themselves up 47-42 following a Lydia Feidt 3-pointer and a  Lauren Paulsen bucket off an inbounds play. North Central evened the score at 47-47 following an old-fashioned three-point play by Vanderploeg with 7:09 remaining.

The Rams would go into bonus with 5:54 left, but the Knights would not be rattled and didn't allow a North Central run to occur. Heckendorf and Paulsen then made plays on offense to keep the Rams in check and the women would close things out with an Emma Nelson 3-pointer and a Heckendorf jumper at the 1:19 mark.

Overall, MLC improved heavily on defense against the Rams and forced North Central into just 11.1 percent shooting from deep (2-for-18), after allowing them to shoot nearly 61 percent from 3-point territory in the first meeting.

Heckendorf paced the Knights with 20 points and was perfect from the charity stripe, making eight of the 18 MLC free throws. Paulsen totaled 16 points and had a team-high in rebounds (8) and steals (5).

MLC improves to 11-11 overall and 6-5 in conference play and will look to climb further up the UMAC standings when they play Northwestern. The Eagles are currently in third with a 7-4 record and both schools would be tied if MLC pulls off the win. The game will be played at the Ericksen Center in St. Paul at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 10.