DULUTH, Minn. – The Macalester College men's basketball team battled a tough St. Scholastica team on the road and came away with a 69-63 MIAC victory Saturday afternoon. The Scots improve to 12-6 overall and 9-5 in the conference, while the Saints drop to 4-14, 3-10 MIAC.
St. Scholastica jumped out to a 17-5 lead over the first eight minutes of the game and still led by 12, 24-12 with 7:30 left in the first half. Macalester battled back to tie the score at 29-29 with a 17-5 run buoyed by nine points from junior guard
Caleb Williams (Wild Rose, Wis./Wild Rose) and three-pointers by sophomore guard
Coby Gold (Denver, Colo./Kent Denver) and first year forward
Noah Shannon (Northfield, Ill./New Trier). After Nick Carlson scored to give the Saints a 31-29 lead, two free throws from Gold just before halftime tied the score at 31-31 heading into the break.
A pair of three-pointers by Williams and Gold helped to spark a 14-4 Scots' run for a 47-38 lead with 12:46 remaining. St. Scholastica responded with nine straight points to tie the score, 47-47 with 9:10 left the second half. Sophomore guard
Marcus Crawford (Edina, Minn./Edina) ended the run by draining a three-pointer while getting fouled. He made the free throw to give Macalester a 51-47 edge with 8:40 left. After Gold scored to make it 53-47, Carlson converted a conventional three-point play to bring the Saints within three, 53-50. Four more free throws from Williams and a basket by Shannon pushed the lead up to 59-50 with 4:38 left.
After Isiah Hendrickson hit two free throws and Jeff Moore made a three to cut the deficit to four, 59-55, Williams and Noah Winesett exchanged three-pointers that made the score 62-58 with less than three minutes to play. After Shannon and Carlson each made two free throws, Shannon scored on a layup with 30 seconds left for a 66-60 lead. Gold grabbed a rebound off a missed Saints' shot, was fouled and made two free throws to push the lead up to 68-60. Winesett hit a three with 17 seconds remaining, but it was not enough, as Gold made a free throw down the stretch to close out the win, 69-63.
The Scots shot 35.1 percent from the field for the game but made 19-of-22 from the free throw line compared to 7-of-11 for St. Scholastica. Williams registered his sixth 20-point game in his past seven games with 24 points to go with five rebounds and five assists. Gold finished with 20 points, seven boards, four steals and two blocks, while Shannon contributed 15 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore forward
Badou Ba (Dakar, Senegal/Williston Northampton) also had nine boards to go with four blocks and three steals. Carlson paced the Saints with 24 points.
Macalester plays a non-conference game at Minnesota Morris on Monday, Jan. 30. The game starts at 7:00 p.m.
