The Scots entered Saturday’s home game with St. Mary’s seeking to rebound from a tough loss to Gustavus three days before and exact revenge for a 66-57 loss to St Mary’s on Jan. 7.

They accomplished both of those tasks, but not without an exciting battle.

The game began close and stayed that way throughout, with the lead going back and forth, and neither team able to put a run together.

Both teams relied heavily on their top scorers in the first half. Macalester’s Ben Van Thorre ’04 and Jeff Tendall of St. Mary’s racked up 16 and 18 points respectively. The visitors found themselves up 23-20 before Macalester's defense stepped up.

Wes McFarland ’05 had some great hustle plays, helping the Blue and Orange to a 28-25 lead with 2:14 to go in the half. St. Mary’s responded however, and the Scots were down a point, 31-32, at the intermission.

The second half started much like the first, with both teams staying even with each other. Trading baskets, the teams were deadlocked at 40 with 15:30 to play. Tendall again took over for St. Mary’s, hitting a big three in what turned out to be a huge possession for the Cardinals, putting them up 58-54 with 8:19 left in the game. After a lengthy series of fouls coming from both sides in which Adam Denny ’04 and two Cardinal players fouled out, the game was again tied at 71 with 2:45 on the clock.

With every St. Mary’s possession chants of, “De-fense!! De-fense!!” came though the Cardinals were unfazed and went up 74-72. Chris Assel ’04 answered the call, however, hitting a jumper and tying the game with only 1:17 to go. Scots fans rose to their feet, trying to will the team to victory and were finally rewarded. Lars Johnson ’07 stole the ball from St. Mary’s and hit the biggest shot of the game; a three-pointer to put Macalester up 77-74 with under a minute to go. St. Mary’s looked to get within one, but their shot was off and Macalester came down with the rebound. Assel coolly sank two free throws with 14.7 seconds left to and sealed Macalester’s hard-fought victory. The final score was 79-74, Macalester. Along with Van Thorre (27 pts), Assel (21 pts) and Brendan Bosman ’06 (10 pts, 8 rebounds) had big games for Macalester. “We didn’t play anywhere near to one of our best games of the season and were able to grind out the victory,” Macfarland said.

Earlier in the day, the Macalester women also hosted St. Mary’s, looking to get in the “W” column.

For a while it appeared the Scots would keep it close. Ultimately, “The game was pretty rough all around and although we didn’t get many of the calls in our favor, everyone on the team worked really hard down to the last minute,” Afton Hanson ’04 said.

Macalester had a good defensive effort the first half of the game and limited St. Mary’s to only 23 points. Unfortunately, Macalester’s offense was less successful and was hampered by questionable foul trouble. Sarah Jacoby ’04 stepped up and provided seven first-half points, but the Scots trailed 23-14 at the half.

Macalester fought back after the break, pulled within seven points at 28-21 and gave a glimmer of hope that maybe an upset could be pulled off. The Cardinals, however, rattled off a quick 8-2 run to take control of the game, 36-23.

An excellent effort by Sara Hill ’07 (13 pts), including a couple steals and drives to the hoop, just weren’t enough. Macalester’s offense picked up in the third, but not enough to keep up with the Cardinal’s. Hanson fouled out with 4:46 to play and Macalester never closed the gap, falling 54-38.

Wednesday night the Macalester men picked up another win against St. Thomas. The Tommies were coming off a big win of their own against Gustavas. Though the Scots let a sizable lead slip away at the end of regulation, with the Tommies tying the game at 73 with .8 seconds left, they outscored St. Thomas 15-3 in overtime, winning the game 88-76.

The women lost narrowly earlier in the day, falling 38-48 to St. Thomas.