NEW ULM, MINN.—The Bethel University men's basketball team dropped an 88-83 OT road decision to Martin Luther on Saturday afternoon. 

The Royals fall to 3-6, while the Knights improve to 5-7.

Martin Luther 88, Bethel 83 OT

This tightly contested game featured a whopping 21 tied scores and 14 lead changes. Bethel outscored Martin Luther 37-34 in the opening half behind a well-balanced attack that consisted of eight different scorers. Most of the second half belonged to Bethel as Blake Schmitz's three pointer at the 5:29 mark kick started a 10-0 run that gave his team an eight-point, 74-66 lead with 2:15 remaining. BU led from that point until the final buzzer as Martin Luther's Benjamin Pearson layup as time expired helped erase their eight-point deficit, and sent the game to overtime with the score at 77-77.

Sam Gingras scored four of Bethel's six points in overtime to keep the score at 83-83 with 1:29 left, but the Knights closed the game's scoring with 5-of-6 free throw makes within the final minute to ice an 88-83 OT victory over the Royals.

Nick Burke paced Bethel with 18 points and seven rebounds, followed by 16 from Gingras. Blake Schmitz added 14 points and five steals, while JT Schradle came off the bench with 12 points. 

Martin Luther got a game-high 33 points on 14-of-24 shooting, as well as seven rebounds from Adam Loberger. Benjamin Pearson was next with 20 points.

MLC shot. .508 (33-of-65) from the field, while BU notched a .476 (30-of-63) mark.

Bethel will travel to UW-Superior on Saturday, December 20 for a 1 p.m. game.