ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College men's basketball team dropped the first MIAC contest of the season to St. Thomas, 83-61 Wednesday night in the Leonard Center. The Scots fall to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference, while the Tommies improve to 3-1, 1-0 MIAC.

With the score tied at 10-10 early in the first half, St. Thomas used a 19-4 run to take control of the game with a 29-14 advantage. Macalester cut the deficit to 12 before the Tommies closed out the first half with seven straight points to take a 41-22 lead at the break. Anders Nelson tallied 17 points and six steals in the game's first 20 minutes.

In the second half, St. Thomas pushed the lead up to as many as 32 with 14:46 to play. The score was 66-35 with 13:05 left when the Scots went on a 23-8 run, sparked by 10 points from sophomore center Jackson Henningfield (Lake Mary, Fla./Lyman) and seven from junior guard Nikhil Smith (Augusta, Ga./Lakeside), to bring Macalester to within 16, 74-58 with six minutes remaining. That's as close as the hosts would get, as the Tommies held the Scots to just three points the rest of the way.

Macalester shot 56.0 percent from the field in the second half compared to 48.6 percent for St. Thomas. Smith finished the game with a team-best and career-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. Henningfield notched his second double-double of the season with 15 points and 14 rebounds, while senior forward Wyatt Ferm (Farmington, Minn./Farmington) registered 12 points, seven boards and three assists. Nelson led all players with 24 points.

Macalester continues conference play on Saturday, Dec. 1 against St. Olaf at home. The MIAC game begins at 3:00 p.m. in the Leonard Center.