ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College men's basketball team began the new season at home, hosting Wartburg College Saturday afternoon in the Leonard Center. The Scots played the Knights tough but ultimately fell, 98-82 in a non-conference game to start the year at 0-1. Wartburg evens its record at 1-1.
The Knights opened with a 19-10 run to take control early. Three three-point field goals by sophomore guard
Jamal Randle (St. Paul, Minn./Great River School) helped the Scots cut the lead to four on four different occasions before Wartburg pushed it back up to 10, 35-25 with 8:32 left in the first half. The gap was still 10 before four points by junior guard
Logan Davis (Kensington, Md./Bethesda Chevy Chase) and threes from junior guard
Joaquin Aguillon (San Rafael, Calif./The Branson School) and sophomore guard
Owen Walther (St. Louis, Mo./John Burroughs School) made it a four-point game, 51-47 with 1:42 on the clock. But Wartburg tallied the last five points of the half to take a 56-47 advantage into halftime. Randle and Aguillon each had 11 points for Macalester over the first 20 minutes.
Five points by Davis brought the Scots to within six, 58-52 over the first two minutes of the second half. After that the Knights opened up the game with a 16-5 run that made the score 74-57 Wartburg at the 12:16 mark. Senior guard
Kaden Holdbrook (Palo Alto, Calif./Gunn) answered with a three, sparking an 8-1 run to cut the deficit to 10, 75-65 at the midway point. But the Knights never let Macalester to get within single digits the rest of the way, as Wartburg topped the Scots for the second year in a row.
Wartburg doubled up Macalester in rebounds, 48-24, including 19 on the offensive glass. The rebounding edge led to 21 second chance points for the Knights compared to two for the Scots.
Davis led the Scots with a career-best 25 points in 20 minutes off the bench, hitting 9-of-10 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line. Randle finished with 16 points, while Aguillon scored 12 points to go with five assists. Austin Bienemann scored 26 points to lead all players, while Ethen Yungtum had 20 points and 14 rebounds for Wartburg.
Next up for Macalester is a road game at UW-Eau Claire on Monday, Nov. 9. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
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