January 25, 2022 | by Nate Croswell

LEAD

WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Coming off a huge win on Saturday, the Sabercats suffered a heart-breaking final-minutes loss tonight, falling to Lincoln Christian 73-70.

In the loss, Malachi Herbster dropped a career-high 25 points, as Caleb Moultrie and Aaron Sanders supported him with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

OVERVIEW

• Result: Maranatha 70-73 Lincoln Christian
• Venue: Main Gymnasium, Maranatha Baptist University
• Location: Watertown, Wis.
• Attendance: -
• Records: MBU (2-14), LCU (6-13)

STORY

Both offenses started slow, lumbering to a 5-5 after the first five minutes. Around the 10-minute mark, both teams started to ramp up the scoring, with Maranatha leading 21-18 at 7:30 remaining. Aaron Sanders propelled the offense in the half with his nine points, with Caleb Moultrie and Malachi Herbster each dropping seven points as well. But Lincoln found their momentum at the five-minutes-left mark, ending the half on a 20-8 run to claim the lead heading into the break.

The second half was a different story, as both offenses started to find their rhythm. Lincoln was able to hold their lead around eight points for the first ten minutes, but the Sabercats started to chip away at that lead around the ten-minute mark, bringing the lead down to five. A clutch three from Sanders trimmed the lead to two points at 8:39 remaining, while Moultrie drained a layup a minute later to tie it up at 54.

As Maranatha began to take a slight lead, Herbster, en route to a career-high 25 points, drained eight points in a five-minute span, including the go-ahead bucket at 2:56 remaining to make it a 64-63 game. Maranatha was able to push the lead to 68-64, but the Red Lions drained a layup and a contested three just moments later, taking back the lead. Down 71-70 with ten seconds left, the Sabercats missed a three, resulting in Lincoln securing a victory.

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Maranatha Starters: 3- Mayhak, 5- Sanders, 15- Davis, 21- Moultrie, 24- Herbster // Lincoln starters: 11- Baker, 20- Lobner, 24- Colburn, 30- Flotow, 31- Foster

SOUND BITE

"It would've been nice to pull that one out tonight but the guys are definitely playing a whole lot better," said Coach Joel Borchardt. "We played pretty well defensively and pretty well offensively but the little things killed us tonight. Free throw shooting, urgency on defensive rebounding; just small things that we really could have done better. Hoping to come back tomorrow and improve. We're definitely not where we want to be and so we want to keep pushing ourselves that way."

STATS

• Herbster: Career-high 25 PTS, 7 REB
• Moultrie: 17 PTS
• Sanders: 14 PTS, 7 REB, 3 AST, 1 BLK
• Last time: Maranatha defeated Lincoln Christian in OT 84-81 on February 9, 2021
• Series: Maranatha leads the all-time series against Lincoln Christian 27-16

OPPONENTS

• Lincoln Christian competes in the Continental Athletic Conference (NAIA)
• Lincoln Christian competes in the NCCAA DI and used to compete with Maranatha in the NCCAA DII Midwest region

NEXT

The Sabercats head on the road to Chicago to face Moody Bible Institute on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. Follow along at mbusabercats.com/schedule.