Knights end four game win streak

Unke not satisfied with team's lackluster performance in loss

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Coaches will stress to teams that how they practice before a game more than likely will be a crystal ball as to how they will perform in that upcoming contest.

Case in point -- the Martin Luther College Knight's mens basketball team.

Knight coach Jim Unke said that in their two practices prior to their game with North Central Thursday night, "we did not have that spark -- they were absolutely dead."

That carried over to the meeting with the Rams as they gave up 99 points and saw their four game winning streak broken with a 99-88 loss to North Central.

Matt Zachery led five Ram players in double figures with 24 points, and Matt Frey tossed in 20. Brandon Luebe added 12, Dusty Berry 11 and John Phillips 10.

Jeff Loberger tied Zachery for game-high honors with 24 points for the Knights (8-9) while Tom Engelbrecht netted 21 and Micah Walz 13.

"We were not ready to play tonight," said Unke. "I am disappointed in our performance. Even though it is a non-conference game ... here we have a chance to get above .500. We dug a hole early in the season against some pretty good competition. Now, we had North Central at home and we cannot get above .500. That is disappointing. And maybe we looked past this team to Northwestern (at home) on Saturday. But it is inexcusable."

MLC found themselves down 79-72 with just over six minutes left in the game before they cut the Ram lead to 84-82 on two of Jeff Loberger's six three-point buckets in the game, and hoops courtesy of Engelbrecht and Walz.

But North Central responded with seeming uncontested baskets in the paint by Tim Strandquist and two from Zachery -- baskets that the Knight defense did little to stop.

That precarious two point lead changed to a safe 92-85 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

"They took us to the hole one-on-one and our help-side defense never showed up," Unke said. "We did not get the trap -- we were supposed to be doubling down. Nobody reacted and we did not deserve to win this game. I don't want to take anything away from North Central, we had the talent to win the game. We just did not get it done."

The Rams then closed out the contest outscoring the Knights 7-3.

North Central held only five leads in the first half at 2-0 before regaining the upper hand at 32-31 with 4:12 left in the first half. That erased a Knight lead that had varied from 14-9 on baskets from Englebrecht and Loberger and an MLC lead of 25-19 six minutes later courtesy of a three-pointer from Aaron Schmitz and two Kurt Nielsen free throws.

But perhaps Unke was prophetic with three minutes left in the first half when North Central called a time out after Walz's basket gave MLC a 33-32 lead.

Unke told his players that they needed to play with more intensity on defense -- words that eventually fell on deaf ears as the Knights allowed 41 first half points.

"We gave up too many points in the first half and the 99 points in the game is way to many," said Unke. "We hold good teams to 25 points in the first half earlier in the season and we give up 41 here.

"We let them do it to us and we were content to have it done," Unke said. "No one stepped up -- I challenged the guys before the game who would be the leader and no one showed. And that is disappointing to me at this point of the season."

Unke was also not happy with the first half performance of his guards, Jay Wendland and Dan Unke, who were scoreless and accounted for a combined two shots in the first 20 minutes.

"I don't have an answer for that either," he said. "We have been struggling with discipline on offense for quite a while and the ball is supposed to come from the inside out to the guards. Quite often, if we are not running a disciplined offense, it does not happen.

"This was not representative of how we can play," Unke said. "But the guys have to decide (Saturday) how we want to finish the season -- we have two weeks left."

NORTH CENTRAL 41 58 -- 99

MLC 42 46 -- 88

NORTH CENTRAL (99)

Zachery 24, Frey 20, Liebe 12, Berry 11, Phillips 10, Gullingsrud 8, Burkman 6, Strandquist 4, Thesing 2, Forsberg 2.

MLC (88)

Loberger 24, Engelbrecht 21, Walz 13, Huebner 9, Wendland 8, Unke 4, Nielsen 4, Schmitz 3, Schwartz 2.