ST. PAUL— The University of Northwestern men's basketball saw their first win of the season against their nonconference matchup at Macalester. Win a steady lead throughout the game, the Eagles held on to the victory over the Scots.

In a quiet first few minutes, Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School) put the Eagles on the board first with a jumper, which was then fouled, followed by a good point from the charity stripe. Morrell wasn't finished there, earning a three-pointer at 16:51, individually putting the only six points on the scoreboard in the first four minutes of play. With two treys from the Scots' Kyle Bernard, the teams were tied at six with 15:44 on the clock. It wasn't until eight minutes that the Eagles gained a seven point advantage, but with five missed shots, Matt Watnemo (Moorhead, Minnesota/Moorhead High School) broke the silence with a shot in the paint to put the visitors up 11-19 with just under four minutes in the half. Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) added to the heat with two good free throws and a three-pointer to follow, increasing Northwestern's lead to 14 points. Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) followed in his footsteps with two good free throws and a jumper with 1:15 left.  Adding a Scots three pointer to the mix, Macalester was still unable to bridge the gap, ending the half down 12 points at 20-32.

Macalester hit the second half running with seven points to narrow the Purple and Gold's lead to 27-34. With nine minutes left, Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) tallied three consecutive rebounds, leading to a layup by Caleb Jansen, resulting in a 15 point advantage over the home team. Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) came back into the game and tallied four good free throws in the last few minutes, shooting 6-8 behind the charity stripe for the evening. Trying to recover from the point deficit, Macalester continued to struggle to overcome the disadvantage. Despite the last Scots three-pointer with eight seconds ticking, the home team fell short to Northwestern.

Porter Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Home School), averaging 7.7 points a game, stole the spotlight in tonight's contest with a heavy contribution of 22 points, including 100 percent of his nine free throws. Other notable players bringing home a total of eight points included Caleb Jansen, Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School), and Will Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville).

Northwestern shot a total of 42.3 percent of field goals and 78.6 percent of free throws for the evening. Macalester's impressive 50 percent behind the arc wasn't enough to secure the win with 36.7 percent of total field goals made.

The Eagles (1-3) will fly to the Colorado College Thanksgiving Invitational this week to take on Colorado College on Friday at 7 p.m. MST. The Eagles will play either the University of Dubuque or Willamette University on Saturday, depending on Friday night's results.