Luther's preseason regimen might have been a little different than most. Luther athletics

With 12 players on the roster who weren’t in the program a year ago, the Luther women’s basketball team knew it would need to craft an identity.

The Norse discovered they had an exhausting, never quit attitude during an early-season team-building exercise when the players completed the Marine Combat Fitness Test. Luther has used that mentality while playing its swarming press defense and working its way to the top of the IIAC standings.

Head coach Amanda Bailey said her players had a fear of the unknown going into the Marine Combat Fitness Test, but handled the endurance exercise very well.

“I think they were scared, yet excited,” Bailey said. “They were nervous because we didn’t tell them a whole lot about what was going to happen. We said, ‘The Marines were coming in. They’re going to put you through a fit test and talk about leadership and create this experience.’ That’s pretty much all we told them.”

The training event consisted of an 800-meter run, and ammo box lift and an obstacle course that required, among other things, carrying a teammate from one location to another.

Sophomore Anna Madrigal scored the best in every event, but Bailey said she was proud of the way all of her players banded together to finish the challenge.

“I think every one of our players excelled. I think there were some that wanted to quit ... but every single one of them completed it,” Bailey said, adding that no one wanted to let the team down.

“I think we got more out of it than we even thought we would,” the coach added. “It was an amazing experience.”

With so many new faces, Luther has rallied behind its motto “GRIT,” an acronym that stands for guts, resiliency, intensity and toughness.

Of the dozen new faces on the team, junior Moran Lonning has emerged as a leader, averaging a team-best 14.3 points per game.

She returned to her hometown of Decorah, Iowa, this school year after spending three years as a walk-on in the women’s basketball program at Division I Northern Iowa.

“She is a coach’s dream,” Bailey said. “It’s not just what she does with the basketball. She can score – get to the basket. She can drain a 3. She can get defensive stops. But what she has done for the rest of our players is what has really pushed us forward this season.

“When she’s on the basketball court, she makes every single player around her better.”

The coach added that young players look up to Lonning, and the seniors meshed with her as though she had played her whole career at Luther.

“I wish I had more than two years with her, that’s for sure,” Bailey said.

Moran Lonning played in 23 games for Division I Northern Iowa last season, but found Division I was more like a job. Luther athletics photo

Lonning is happy to be home at Luther after gaining experience at the Division I level.

“At D-III, you find athletes and teammates who just genuinely love basketball and want to be there. They want to be at practice, they want to be training because it’s a choice,” said Lonning, who used a redshirt her first year UNI before playing sparingly over the following two seasons. “Where sometimes at D-I, it almost becomes a job.”

She said the desire for more playing time is what ultimately swayed her to transfer after the spring semester.

Lonning has started all 23 games this season. She helped Luther jump out to a 14-1 overall record.

 And after the Norse lost three of four IIAC decisions in January, she has led the team back into a first-place tie atop the league standings.

“They were awful losses because we were right there, but I think we learned from them,” Lonning said.

Despite falling into a tie for third-place following those three losses over a 10-day span, Luther bounced back with four wins in a row.

Now, they are tied with Dubuque with a 9-3 IIAC record.

“I think those losses came at a good time for us. We had to realize that we had to do a little more – just because we press doesn’t mean that teams are going to back down,” Bailey said. “I think we just found our fight again after those (losses).”

Lonning attributes the team’s resiliency to the lessons it learned during the Marine Combat Fitness Test.

“We just really all had to buy into, ‘We have to be tough. We have to hustle all the time. We have to out-work our opponents.’ That’s how we’ve been winning,” Lonning said.

The IIAC top seed will be on the line when Luther travels to Dubuque for Saturday’s regular season league finale. But the Norse are not looking past Wednesday’s matchup at home vs. archrival Wartburg.

“I would say Wartburg is even bigger right now. We have to make sure we win on Wednesday,” Lonning said. “We just can’t get ahead of ourselves.”

“We don’t talk a whole lot beyond the next game that we have. But they’re aware of what’s at stake here,” Bailey added. “If we do what we need to do, we’ll take of Saturday when Saturday comes.”

Like most teams, the Norse hope to win a league title, claim the conference tournament and reach the NCAA tourney.

Whether Luther wins the program’s eighth conference championship or not, the team can take pride in its improvement from last season’s 2-12 mark in conference action.

But the Norse are optimistic going into the last week of the season.

“We’ve got to be focused,” Lonning said. “For us, it’s making sure we’re never taking possessions off – constantly hustling and out-working our opponents.

“I think we’re capable of winning any game we’re in,” she added. “I really think anything can happen. But it has to be all of us together.”

Her coach agrees that a team effort is the key to success.

“Moran has definitely been the piece that we’ve needed – the glue to our team. But we’ve got a great group of girls,” Bailey said. “Any night, anyone can be our leading scorer.

“They all work so hard.”

Knights keep on winning

The St. Norbert men’s basketball team extended its Midwest Conference winning streak to 41 games with a 73-40 win at Knox Feb. 14.

The Green Knights (21-1 overall, 17-0 MWC) tied a long-standing conference record with the 41st consecutive league victory.

Beloit won 40 games from 1947-51. Then after the program took an eight-year hiatus, the Buccaneers won their 41st straight Midwest Conference game in 1959.

St. Norbert, which has won the last three conference titles, will attempt to break the record Saturday when Cornell visits Schuldes Sports Center.

1,000 points

Mason Roth of Defiance scored his 1,000th point in a 97-58 win over Transylvania Feb. 14. He is the 48th player in program history to eclipse the scoring mark.

JT Vonderhaar became the 17th player in the Coe men’s basketball program to score 1,000 points. He finished with 12 points in the Kohawks’ 71-66 win at Loras Feb. 14.

Mariah Hill surpassed 1,000 points when the Edgewood senior scored nine points in a 46-42 win over Aurora Feb. 14. She is the ninth women’s basketball player at Edgewood to hit the mark.

Buena Vista’s Shelby Wiederhoeft went over 1,000 career points with a 16-point effort in the Beavers’ 85-73 win over Wartburg Feb. 11. She now has 1,012 points in her career.

Where they rank

Four men’s teams in the Region are ranked in the top-five of this week’s Top 25.

UW-Whitewater received nine first place votes but slipped one spot to No. 2. Likewise St. Thomas dropped one spot to No. 3, but the Tommies did receive one first place vote. St. Norbert is now the No. 4 ranked team – up three positions from a week ago. And UW-Stevens Point rose seven spots to No. 5, receiving a first place vote in the process.

Augustana moved up three places to No. 8 this week. St. Olaf is No. 15, Whitworth checks in at No. 19, Elmhurst is No. 21 and Chapman is ranked No. 22.

Cal Lutheran (11), Illinois Wesleyan (10) and Dubuque (1) received votes this week.

St. Thomas and George Fox remained ranked Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, in the women’s Top 25. The Tommies garnered three first place votes while the Bruins secured two.

Transylvania will spend another week ranked No. 15 while Wheaton (Ill.), Whitworth and Puget Sound are listed at Nos. 19, 20 and 21, respectively, and UW-Oshkosh sits at No. 24.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (7) and North Central (Ill.) also received votes.

Check in

Do you have a story idea for the Around the Region column? Contact me about approaching milestones, broken records, breakout players or any other storylines in the area’s conferences. Or just drop me a note and let me know what you like or don’t like about the column. All ideas and feedback are welcome. Email me at josh.smith@d3sports.com or follow me on Twitter @DU_Josh_Smith.