New Ulm, MN - The Martin Luther College women's basketball team played another impressive game, especially on the defensive end of the court, against North Central University on Wednesday. As a result, the Knights matched the program's most regular season wins (13) since the 2015-16 season with their 69-50 victory over the Rams.

The shots didn't always fall for MLC aside for a second quarter where they shot nearly 60 percent from the floor, but that didn't stop the Knights from playing sound basketball on both ends. MLC was up against the UMAC's leading scorer, rebounder, and shot-blocker in Kaitlyn Vanderploeg, but, for the most part, rattled the frontcourt player and made a point to double-team her down on the block. Despite 17 points from Vanderploeg, the Knights neutralized her teammates and didn't allow for a successful shooting night from them, holding the Rams to 4-of-26 from beyond the arc and just 30.5 percent from the field overall.

MLC gained their biggest advantage towards the end of the first half, going up by 17 (34-17) and ending up with a 34-22 lead at the break. The Knights maintained that double-digit lead throughout the third quarter and the closest North Central got to MLC was by nine (51-42) with just a couple of minutes gone by in the fourth quarter. From that point, the Knights kicked it back into gear and took the game with a 10-0 run to silence any comeback opportunity that North Central thought they might have.

"We did a great job of great spacing and communicating overall defensively. We were one or two passes away and that gave us position to double on the catch. Combining that with only six turnovers on offense and a terrific offensive rebounding effort allowed for us to be consistent on both ends of the court,"  said Head Coach Dan Gawrisch of his team's performance tonight.

The Knights had a couple of nice performances from a pair of MLC seniors Emma Dorn and Grace Kieselhorst, who finished with 15 points apiece. Dorn tied the team lead in rebounds (8), while Kieselhorst had the most steals on the squad with four. MLC had two other players in double figures as Mya Morris scored 10 points and Ava Stein recorded 11 points and five rebounds off of the bench.

MLC improved to 13-5, 6-1, and remains in first place in the conference along with UW-Superior. The Knights will go for their 14th win of the season on Saturday, February 1, when they go to Northwestern at 4:45 p.m.