Game Summary

WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team shouldn't shoulder all the blame for Monday's 64-48 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athetic Conference loss to Macalester.

Part of the blame should go to St. Thomas.

After all, it was the Tommies who knocked off Macalester 79-56 last Saturday, handing the Scots one of their most lopsided losses of the season — and forcing them to take out their frustrations on the Cardinals.

Doug Benson scored a game-high 23 points and Ben Van Thorre added 17 as Macalester improved to 7-2 in the MIAC and remained one game behind league-leaders St. Thomas and Gustavus.

Brett Johnson (Onalaska, Wis.) scored a team-high 15 points and grabbed eight streals to lead the way for SMU, which lost for the third straight time and fell to 3-7 in MIAC play. Nick Michaels (Dyer, Ind.), who had his consecutive double-double string snapped at two in Saturday's loss to Concordia, fell one rebound short of his third double-double of the season, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Macalester jumped out to a 25-21 halftime advantage, but SMU scored the first five points of the second half to take their only lead of the game, 26-25. It was all Scots from there, however, as Macalester outscored the Cardinals 39-22 the rest of the way.