LEAD

DECORAH, Iowa -- After a solid start, the Sabercats faded away on a long opening night at Luther College.

The Norse pulled away at the end of the first half, cruising to a 94-58 win with some stellar work from starters and bench players alike.

OVERVIEW

• Result: Maranatha 58-94 Luther
• Venue: Regents Center, Luther College
• Location: Decorah, Iowa
• Attendance: 173
• Records: MBU (0-1), LC (2-0)

STORY

Things were even in the first half, for the most part. MBU did allow Luther to grab four offensive boards which translated into six points for the Norse, but thanks to eight points from Aaron Sanders and five bench points from Josh Davis, the Sabercats were right there.

But things went south inside of the 10-minute mark in the first half, when Luther strung together a 15-2 run, taking advantage of some Sabercat turnovers to take the steam out of MBU. Going into the locker room, the Sabercats had some room for improvement, down 49-30.

Unfortunately for MBU, the second-half storyline followed suit.  

The Sabercats' shooting went cold in the second half - the team fell below 30 percent from the field and shot a measly 1-11 from downtown. All told, the Sabercats turned it over 27 times on the night and were no match for a deep Luther team, who had 47 points from starters and bench players alike. The Norse had five players in double figures and used that depth to outplay the Sabercats, who will look to find a rhythm as the season gets going.

--

MBU Starters: 2- Ball, 3- Mayhak, 5- Sanders, 13- Caldwell, 23- Wilkerson

STATS

• Sanders: 16 PTS, 3 REB
• Davis: 10 PTS, 2 STL
• Stephen Wilkerson: 8 PTS, 6 REB
• Taylor Ball: 2 PTS, 10 REB 
• Last time: Luther won 64-63 at home during the 2017-18 season
• Series: Luther leads the series 2-0

OPPONENTS

• Luther competes in the American Rivers Conference
• Luther opened the season with an 80-77 non-conference win over Macalester College Sunday afternoon
• Luther finished last season with a 7-17 record

NEXT

The Sabercats will travel to Rockford University for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff Thursday. Follow at mbusabercats.com/schedule.