ST. PAUL, Minn. – Sophomores Noah Shannon (Northfield, Ill./New Trier) and Eric Wentz (Minot, N.D./Minot) had career bests, as the Macalester College men's basketball team defeated St. Olaf, 86-82 in a MIAC battle Wednesday night in the Leonard Center. The win gives the Scots a 4-2 record overall and a 1-1 mark in conference play. The Oles drop to 1-4, 0-2 MIAC.

Macalester led early, with junior guard Tom Andreae (Newton, Mass./Newton North) making a pair of threes and scoring eight points in a 10-3 run to open the game. After St. Olaf came back to take a 13-12 edge, Wentz drained two three-pointers and tallied eight points in a 10-2 spree that put the Scots on top, 22-15 with 12:11 left in the half. With the lead still seven, 25-18, the Oles went on a 22-8 run to take their own seven-point lead, 40-33 with 3:13 on the clock. Macalester tallied five of the final eight points of the half to make the halftime score 43-38 St. Olaf at the break. The Oles shot 50.0 percent from the field compared to 38.9 percent for the Scots in the first half.

With the deficit still five early in the second half, the Scots registered a game-changing 17-6 run, buoyed by a pair of threes by Wentz and another from sophomore forward Ryan Brush (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue), that gave Macalester the lead, 59-53 with 13 minutes to play. Junior guard Caleb Williams (Wild Rose, Wis./Wild Rose), who was quiet until the second half, made back-to-back baskets to push the lead to 10, 68-58 with 10:26 remaining.

St. Olaf continued to battle, as Koby Kirk and Jaylen Hannah made threes in a 10-2 run that made it a two-point game, 70-68 with under seven minutes on the clock. First year guard Kaden Holdbrook (Palo Alto, Calif./Gunn) hit two free throws and a three-pointer to push the lead up to seven, only to have the Oles respond with a 9-3 run to pull within one, 78-77 with 1:35 left to play. Wentz nailed his sixth three-pointer of the game, then Kirk converted a conventional three-point play to make the score 81-80 with 30 seconds left. Two more Holdbrook free throws and a basket by Connor Martin made the score 83-82 with five seconds remaining, then a technical foul on the Oles gave Macalester two free throws and the ball. The Scots made 3-of-4 from the line and closed out the win, 86-82.

Macalester was 12-of-28 (42.9 percent) from beyond the arc for the game compared to 7-of-19 (36.8 percent) for St. Olaf. The Scots also crashed the boards for 16 offensive rebounds, including nine in the second half. Wentz was 6-of-8 from three-point range en route to a career-high 22 points. Shannon snared 10 of his career-high 15 rebounds in the second half and scored 13 points for his first double-double as a Scot. Holdbrook tallied 19 points and seven rebounds, while Williams finished with 12 points and five boards. Andreae made it five Scots in double-figures with 10 points in the win. Kirk paced St. Olaf with 23 points and 16 rebounds.

Macalester travels to Duluth, Minn., on Saturday, Dec. 2 to face St. Scholastica in a MIAC game. Tip-off is set for 3:00 p.m.