ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. --- Crown Men's Basketball took control of Senior Night immediately at the Wild Athletic Center, starting the game with a 22-3 run and looked like they were going to run away with the game. However, Martin Luther crept back in before halftime, cutting the Crown lead down to only six. The Storm came back with new life in a now close game in the second half and held the Knights to only 23 points the rest of the contest as they won by 16, 72-56. 

The Storm changed up their starting lineup for Senior Day, with seniors Adam Lechelt, D'Andre Caster, and Logan Strand joining the usual starting seniors Josh Volness and Keegan Oyugi. It was this four-guard lineup that gave the Knights the initial trouble before they found their rhythm.

"That's how we wanted to look all year. We had good defense, good ball movement though we let it slip the last eight minutes of the first half," said senior guard Adam Lechelt. "We took it back as a team and finished off strong. Everybody got to play, a real fun game, a real fun win. We're looking good going into Saturday [against St. Scholastica] and going into the playoffs." 

Off the bench for the first time this season, junior forward Timothy Wendel scored 18 points on 50% shooting from the field as he led a bench unit that nearly outscored the Knights single-handedly with 47 points. Included in his 18 points was a thunderous dunk for a three-point play. Fellow junior Gunnar Ledin scored nine points from the bench and sophomore Christian Moore scored ten points on 4/7 from the field. 

The senior guard Keegan Oyugi once again led the team passing the ball, with six assists in the game. Fellow senior Josh Volness had eight points in the game, and Logan Stand had seven points on 3/4 from the field. Volness added three steals and Strand added five rebounds in the contest. 

First-year guard Sawyer Lawhon had his career-high in his early colligate career, with five points on 2/3 shooting from the field. Junior Kole Jusczak had four points, making his only three-point attempt, and added five boards, three assists, and three steals from the bench. 

Notes: After lighting it up from downtown in the first half making half of their 12 attempts, the Storm were able to hold the Knights to only 2/11 of their second-half three-point attempts. The Storm made 38% of their shots from beyond the arc and 41% of their field goal attempts. Crown had their way in the turnover margin, scoring 27 points on turnovers compared to the Knights' 7. The Storm didn't allow any fast-break points by Martin Luther and scored ten of their own in the contest. A wire-to-wire victory, Crown never lost the lead since they made their opening basket. 

Crown improves to 10-5 in UMAC play, with a big game against St. Scholastica Saints (also 10-5) in Duluth on Saturday. The Saints are coming off a 94-86 win over the Northland Lumberjacks and bested the Storm at the Wild Athletic Center earlier this season. Both the Storm and Saints have clinched a berth to the UMAC Playoffs, but the winner of this game avoid a Wild Card round and heads to the likely easier matchup against the #2-seeded Bethany Lutheran Vikings on Wednesday. The loser of Saturday's game hosts the winner of this weekend's Northland/UM-Morris game on Monday for the Wild Card round and with a victory would then have to head to the #1-seeded Northwestern Eagles home court.