MAC Game

Last night we went into MAC's gym for the second time in a week (due to St. Thomas using their gym for some of their home games). The game turned out a lot better than the St. Thomas game but we were still extremely sloppy and I wasn't happy with our overall effort. At the same time, I'll take any win at this point of the season. We want to put ourselves in the best position possible for the playoffs and hopefully have a home game.

Macalester always presents a challenge because they have been struggling in recent years and our players know it. I don't care what anyone says but when you see that the team you are playing hasn't won a conference game the natural tendency is to play at their level. A couple of good things about the Scots is that they will play hard for 40 minutes every night and they are very well coached. Coach Tim Whittle has done a great job with the guys he has. They just need more talent for them to be successful.

The game started off pretty slow and wasn't very pretty for the first ten minutes of the half. The second ten minutes we started to pick up our intensity and really push the lead to where we thought it should've been. We started a behind the arc onslaught led by Brandon Rieg and Dan Andersen. Brandon went 3-3 and Dan went 2-2 from behind the arc. We went into the locker room with a 17 point lead.

The second half got off to an ugly start and we weren't taking care of the basketball. We were making sloppy passes and expecting Macalester just to fold over and quit on us. Though, we were able to extend the lead. The second half was extremely ugly. We finished with 21 turnovers, which is unacceptable against any team, let alone a team that doesn't pressure. The final score was 84-57. We were led by Rieg's 17 points on 5-5 shooting from 3. Ray Brown and Andersen both finished with 14. As a team we shot 12-17 from the arc and only 8-11 from the line. We are now 11-6 and 7-5 in the conference.

We have a big game on Wednesday night against St. Olaf. They are ahead of us in the standings by a half game and beat us earlier in the year when we let one slip away. We have to rebound the basketball, play solid defense, and take care of ball. All things we can control.