Knights fall in season opener

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- One turnover out of 19 doesn't seem terribly important. But it might seem that way to the Martin Luther Knights.

Freshman Jay Wendland's errant pass out of bounds with just seven seconds in the game gave the ball back to the Marian Sabres and Marian held on to edge MLC 74-71 in nonconference men's basketball Friday night. The game was the first of the season for both teams.

"Down the stretch, I was a little disappointed," MLC coach James Unke said. "We had a couple of big turnovers in the last minute. It seems like a broken record, but with a young team they got to figure out who to get the ball to and when."

In a back-and-forth game, it was the Sabres in the second half who seemed always a point or two ahead. MLC led 69-64 with 5:57 in the game, but the Sabres rallied to tie the game at 69-all when Joe Napier, who had 10 points, got free inside.

With Marian leading 72-69 with 17 seconds in the game, Wendland fouled Joe Howard. Howard missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and the Knights Kurt Nielsen grabbed the rebound and called time out with 16 seconds.

But an MLC turnover on the inbounds play gave the ball back to the Sabres. On Marian's inbounds play, the Knights promptly fouled, sending Howard back to the line with 14 seconds left.

Howard again obliged and missed the front end of the 1-and-1, giving possession back to the Knights.

Nielsen was fouled, but missed the front end of his 1-and-1. The Knights still had that one last possession, but the ball just went the wrong way.

"It was a tough loss," MLC junior guard Jake Briney said. "We made a lot of turnovers, me included. I shouldn't be getting turnovers like that. I was a little nervous, I think we all were. It's a tough loss, but I think we learned some things."

One thing the Knights learned is they can score. With the loss of junior Jeff Loberger to a knee injury, and his 20 points per game, a big question for MLC (0-1) was where would the points come from.

The answer -- from a lot of different people. Four Knights scored in double figures, led by sophomore guard Phil Huebner's 14 off the bench.

"I just wanted to go in and give the best that I could," Huebner said. "This is going to be a team that doesn't care who scores. It's going to be a team thing."

Nielsen scored 12 off the bench and Josh Rimpel added another seven. Briney led the starters with 13 points; freshman post Tom Engelbrecht scored 10 and Ben Kuerth added nine.

MLC also had another concern -- its perimeter play. That question was answered. The Knights got 39 points from their guards and MLC went 10-for-19 (52.6 percent) from behind the arc with Huebner hitting 4-of-6 from 3-point land.

MLC shot 40 percent from the field for the game.

The game was tight throughout. Marian took the game's biggest lead -- 44-38 -- into the locker room at halftime.

That happened after MLC only trailed by two with 45 seconds left in the first half and had the ball. Two turnovers gave the Sabres their halftime margin.

Some pretty good 3-point shooting also helped. Marian (1-0) was 9-of-13 (69.2 percent) beyond the arc in the first half.

Scott Jaeger, who led the Sabres with a game-high 25 points, hit his first three 3-point attempts. Jaeger finished the game with five 3s in just eight attempts and Marian went 11-of-20 (55 percent) from behind the arc for the game.

"We were not doing a good job of getting around the screens," Unke said. "Their perimeter guys were getting good looks in the first half. At halftime, we talked about bumping the screener, don't let them run free ... slow them down a little bit. They didn't get a lot of good looks in the second half."

Despite the loss, and the first-game mistakes, Unke was not totally dissatisfied.

"I think with all the questions that we had coming into this first game, I think we're off to a pretty good start," Unke said. "Our guys were competitive, they hung in there. ... It's a matter of just maturing and I think we'll be fine."

MLC will host Grinnell at 3 p.m. today.

MARIAN (1-0)

Jaeger 7-10 6-6 25, Howard 1-1 0-2 3, Napier 5-14 0-2 10, Crowe 1-4 0-0 3, Muench 6-13 4-4 18, Zeuske 0-1 0-0 0, Hilgenberg 0-4 0-0 0, Matz 2-4 0-0 6, Georgeff 2-5 0-0 4, Jones 0-3 5-6 5, Huber 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-60 15-20 74.

MARTIN LUTHER (0-1)

Wendland 1-4 0-0 3, Briney 5-9 0-0 13, Kuerth 2-6 4-4 9, Ph.Huebner 5-7 0-0 14, Breitkreutz 0-0 1-2 1, Engelbrecht 4-8 2-2 10, Zahn 1-2 0-0 2, Rimpel 3-4 0-0 7, Nielsen 5-7 2-4 12. Totals 26-47 9-12 71.

Halftime--Marian 44, MLC 38. 3-Point Goals--Marian 11-20 (Jaeger 5-8, Matz 2-3, Muench 2-5, Howard 1-1, Crowe 1-2, Zeuske 0-1), MLC 10-19 (Ph.Huebner 4-6, Briney 3-7, Rimpel 1-1, Wendland 1-2, Kuerth 1-3). Fouled out--None. Rebounds--Marian 26 (Muench 7), MLC 30 (Engelbrecht 9). Assists--Marian 8 (Jaeger 4), MLC 15 (Huebner 4). Total fouls--Marian 15, MLC 19. Turnovers--Marian 9, MLC 19.