NORTHFIELD, Minn. – In the first game of 2022, the Macalester College men's basketball team lost a MIAC game at Carleton College, 70-61 Wednesday night at Carleton's West Gymnasium. The Scots drop to 4-7 overall and 1-6 in the conference, while the Knights improve to 7-3, 4-2 MIAC.
Macalester trailed by as many as five points early in the first half before reeling off a 15-5 run to take a 23-18 lead with 6:17 on the clock. Senior center
Shane Anderson (Fargo, N.D./Davies) led the way with 10 points in the run. Carleton cut the deficit to one, 23-22, but the Scots outscored the Knights, 12-4 over the final 3:12 of the half to take a 35-26 advantage at the break. First year guard
Coby Gold (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver), senior guard
Lucas Leiter (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Eagan) and sophomore guard
Caleb Williams (Wild Rose, Wis./Wild Rose) each hit threes down the stretch, as Anderson led the Scots with 12 points.
In the second half, Macalester maintained the upper hand early and led 45-40 with 14:09 to play. Back-to-back threes from Alex Battist and Jeremy Beckler gave Carleton its first lead of the second half, 46-45 with 13 minutes remaining. The outcome remained in the balance, with two lead changes and four ties over the next eight minutes, the last tie coming on a three-pointer by Williams at the 5:12 mark. At that point, the Scots struggled to score, managing two field goals the rest of the way as Carleton closed out the game with a 13-4 run to win, 70-61. After shooting 50.0 percent from the field in the first half, Macalester was 11-of-28 (39.3 percent) from the floor after halftime compared to 58.3 percent for the Knights.
Williams led the Scots with 17 points to go with three assists and three steals. Anderson tallied 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting and grabbed six rebounds, while Gold recorded 11 points, six rebounds and four assists. Beckler had 18 points to pace Carleton.
Macalester continues MIAC action with a game at Augsburg on Saturday, Jan. 8. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. in Minneapolis, Minn.
