ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College men's basketball team opened the 2021-22 season with an exciting, 80-59 victory over Luther College in front of a large and boisterous crowd Saturday afternoon in the Leonard Center. The Scots, who were 8-17 in 2019-20, started the season with a victory for the third straight year.
After a slow start that saw the Norse take a 12-8 lead early, Macalester hit its stride with a 12-2 run to lead, 20-14 midway through the first half. Later in the half, a pair of three-pointers by first year
Coby Gold (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) helped the Scots build their largest lead of the half, 37-26 with under four minutes on the clock. Luther closed out the half with a 5-2 run to make the score 39-31 Macalester at the break. The Scots shot 63.0 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes compared to 42.9 percent for the Norse.
Macalester came out for the second half on fire, scoring the first 13 points to take a commanding 52-31 advantage with 16:13 to play. First year
Robert Grace IV (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake School) had five points and senior
Shane Anderson (Fargo, N.D./Davies) scored four points in the run. Luther responded with a 12-2 run of its own to make the score 54-43 with 12:35 left. Sophomore
Caleb Williams (Wild Rose, Wis./Wild Rose) halted the run with the first of two three-pointers that sparked a 13-4 spree for an insurmountable 67-47 lead with 6:40 remaining. The Norse came as close as 16 points the rest of the way, as the Scots sent their fans home happy with a convincing 80-59 win.
Macalester ended up shooting 58.9 percent from the field for the game while turning the ball over just four times. Williams finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Gold hit 4-of-8 from three-point range en route to 18 points and five assists, while Anderson finished with 14 points and five rebounds. Grace ended up with nine points, three assists and a thrilling block from behind on a shot by 6-foot-10 Ben Gill. Gill led Luther with 17 points.
Macalester plays another non-conference game on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at Martin Luther. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in New Ulm, Minn.
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