NEW ULM, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran men's basketball team (4-2 overall, 1-0 UMAC) opened conference play with an 85-68 victory over Martin Luther (1-3, 0-1) Wednesday. This marked the ninth-straight win in the series for BLC.

Three Vikings finished with double doubles as senior Trenton Krueger (Eagan, Minn.) had 22 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Cire Mayfield (St. Louis Park, Minn.) was the next leading scorer with 10 rebounds, and junior Brian Smith (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) rounded out the leading scorers with 10 points and as many rebounds.

Bethany set a new single game school record with 63 rebounds in the contest. The old record was 60 which was interestingly set against Martin Luther on Dec. 12, 2015.   

BLC jumped to a 13-5 lead in the first three minutes of play and never looked back. They took the 44-37 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Vikings continued to lead for the duration of the second frame and pushed the margin to double digits for the last seven minutes of play.

Bethany Lutheran owned two of the three team shooting percentage categories, as both teams shot 22.7% from beyond the arc.

The Vikings conclude their road trip Saturday against nonconference opponent, Central College, at 5 p.m.