ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Macalester College men's basketball team lost a MIAC game to Bethel University, 82-72 Saturday night in the Leonard Center. The loss drops the Scots to 10-6 overall and 7-5 in the conference, while the Royals improve to 6-11, 4-8 MIAC.
Macalester trailed early in the first half, 13-6 before getting three-pointers from first year guard
Eric Wentz (Minot, N.D./Minot) and sophomore guards
Marcus Crawford (Edina, Minn./Edina) and
Coby Gold (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) to tie the score at 15-15 with 13 minutes on the clock. With the game still tied at 28-28, baskets by sophomore guard
Robert Grace IV (Minneapolis, Minn./The Blake School) and senior guard
Ahad Anjum (Karachi, Pakistan/American School of Dubai), plus another three from Gold, put the Scots on top, 35-28 with 3:15 left in the half. Bethel closed out the first half with an 8-2 run to cut Macalester's lead to one, 37-36 at the break.
Early in the second half, the Scots were hanging on to a one-point lead when a pair of baskets from first year
Noah Shannon (Northfield, Ill./New Trier), a layup by forward
Badou Ba (Dakar, Senegal/Williston Northampton) and a three from junior guard
Caleb Williams (Wild Rose, Wis./Wild Rose) gave Macalester its largest lead of the game, 53-43 with 13:50 to play. The Royals responded by scoring the next 13 points to regain the upper hand, 56-53 midway through the second half. After the Scots came back to tie the score at 63-63, Bethel reeled off the next eight points to take a 71-63 advantage with 4:19 remaining.
The lead grew to nine points before a three and a free throw from Williams and a dunk by Shannon brought Macalester to within three, 75-72 with two minutes left. But the Scots missed their final seven shots from the field, and the Royals closed out the game on a 7-0 run to win, 82-72. Bethel shot 47.7 percent from the field compared to 42.6 percent for Macalester, which made just 38.2 percent from the field after halftime.
Williams finished with 26 points and made 5-of-11 from three-point range. Gold tallied 12 points, nine rebounds and three assists, while Shannon contributed 10 points, four boards, two assists and two steals. Zach Doely and Joey Kidder paced Bethel with 26 and 20 points, respectively.
Macalester hosts Hamline in another MIAC game on Wednesday, Jan. 25. Opening tip is set for 7:00 p.m. in the Leonard Center.
