Macalester vs. St. Thomas stats & play-by-play

After beating St. Mary's 72-70 Monday night on a game-winning basket with 1.6 seconds left, Macalester scored the game-winner on a Jerry Kraus (So., Bucharest, Romania / Chaparral (Colo.) basket with 1.5 to go as the Scots toppled No. 22-ranked St. Thomas by an identical 72-70 tally.

Macalester's win, coupled with a loss tonight by Carleton, put the Scots all alone on top of the MIAC standings at 3-0 and as the only unbeaten conference team heading into a month-long break from competition.

Both teams shot well, with UST finishing the night with a 55% performance and Macalester shooting 54% from the field. Both teams were just under .500 on three pointers and neither team went to the free throw line much or grabbed many offensive rebounds. Neither team had an advantage in turnovers.

Macalester led most of the way, although never by a safe margin. Thomas took its first lead since early in the first half on a Tyler Nicolai layup with 4:48 to play, going up 65-63. The margin grew to four points until a Tom Conboy (Sr., Chanhassen, Minn. / Minnetonka) layup at 2:23 cut the lead in half. Another Conboy inside bucket at 1:21 deadlocked the score at 67-67.

The Scots reclaimed their lead on a long three-pointer by Brian Ranwick (Sr., Plymouth, Minn. / Minnetonka) to go up 70-67. A Joe Scott trey following an offensive rebound at :16 made things 70-70.

Just as on Monday night, Abe Woldeslassie (Sr., Richfield, Minn. / St. Thomas Academy) set things up for the last shot. Instead of driving in for the game-winning layup with 1.6 to go as he did against St. Mary's, Woldeslassie drove in and dished his sixth assist of the night off to Kraus, who converted the winning hoop with 1.5 remaining.

Conboy had another big night for the Scots and becomes the fourth player in the program's history to pass the 1,500-point mark in career scoring. He now has 1,510 points. Conboy finished with 28 points, going 12-for-16 from the field.

Woldeslassie finished with 13 points to go along with his six assists, and Ranwick went 3-for-4 on three-pointers for nine points.

In the first game of the Mac / UST twinbill, the Macalester women rallied to beat the Tommies 74-68. This is the first time ever that Macalester has defeated St. Thomas in both women's and men's basketball on the same day.

The only team without a conference loss, the Scots don't return to MIAC action until Jan. 5 at Concordia. They are off until a Dec. 29 non-conference game at Northwestern College.