ST. PAUL, Minn. – After a 1-1 road trip in Wisconsin over the weekend, the University of Northwestern Men's Basketball team returned to the friendly confines of the Ericksen Center for a non-conference tilt with Macalester College. Through 12 minutes of action, the confines appeared as friendly as it gets, as Northwestern held a 17-point advantage and was seemingly scoring at-will. But Macalester buckled down in the second half and chipped away at the lead, taking the lead with 12:25 remaining and outlasting the Eagles by an 85-79 score to improve to 3-2 on the season. With the loss, UNW falls to 1-3.
All five Northwestern starters scored in the early goings as the hosts took a 19-7 lead, but it was the lone forward in the lineup,
Jonah Burnett (Orr, Minn./North Woods), who led the way with seven.
Jacob Hoefs (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) reached six points in his first start to extend the lead to 13, then
Japheth Nyamari (Anoka, Minn./Anoka), who entered the game averaging 29.3 points per game, began to find his stroke with five-straight UNW points.
Ben Tschida (Andover, Minn./Legacy Christian Academy),
Isaac Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) and
Blake Dalluge (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) joined the scoring party, giving all eight Eagles who saw action in the game points before the seven-minute mark and giving Northwestern the largest lead of the night at 38-21. The Scots scored eight-in-a-row to briefly trim the deficit to single digits, but a pair of Foster buckets pushed it back to 13. MAC eventually got within seven, but two more Tschida field goals and a late three-pointer by Nyamari made the score 49-39 at half.
Nyamari continued to feel it offensively, scoring UNW's first six points of the second half, but Macalester began the frame on an 18-8 run to tie the game at 57 just under six minutes in, and took the lead with 12:25 left. Layups by Foster and Greene helped the Eagles regain a two-point edge, but the Scots responded with a 7-0 run to move ahead. 70-65. Back-to-back threes by Hoefs and Greene put Northwestern back in front by one and got the crowd back into it, with the teams going back-and-forth down the stretch.
UNW would take its final lead of the night with 3:35 remaining after Greene buried a pair of free throws to go up by one, but first-year Macalester head coach Rich Glesmann drew up a beauty of a set out of a timeout to put his squad back in front for good. A Burnett jumper with 2:21 on the clock brought the Eagles within two, but they would go scoreless the rest of the way, falling 85-79.
Despite a season-low output to this point, Nyamari still scored 20 points to lead the Eagles and pulled down six rebounds in the process. Foster added 13 points, five boards, two steals and two assists, while Burnett and Hoefs each chipped in 12 points, with the latter adding five rebounds and two steals. Greene finished with nine points, seven boards and two assists, and Tschida contributed eight points and eight rebounds.
Northwestern will travel to St. Olaf on Saturday, November 22
nd for a 3:00 PM date with the Oles.
