WINONA, Minn. — When the Saint Mary's University men's basketball team squared off against Macalester in the teams' first meeting on Nov. 20, it was the Cardinals who left the Scots' Leonard Center with a nail-biting, two-point victory.
Saturday afternoon at the Saint Mary's Gym, the two teams did battle once again — and once again it was a fight to the finish.
This time around, however, it was Macalester that left the court with the white-knuckle victory, as the Scots knocked down 7 of 8 free throws in the game's final 38 seconds to hold off the hard-charging Cardinals, dealing SMU a 76-72 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback.
It was the Frechette and Freetly Show to open the game, as the Cardinal duo accounted for 10 of Saint Mary's first 14 points —
Noah Frechette delivered for field goals, including two 3-pointers and
Caden Freetly (Farmington, Minn.) chipped in a 3-pointer and 1 of 2 free throws — to give the Cardinals a 16-11 advantage.
The Scots would answer Saint Mary's early run, using a 10-4 burst to take their first lead of the half, 21-20, with 6:45 to play.
Macalester would lead by one on one other occasion, 24-23, before Saint Mary's — fueled by back-to-back 3-pointers from
Breyton Buysman () and
Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) — closed the half scoring 10 of the final 12 points to take a 33-26 lead into the locker room at the break
Freetly picked up where he left off to open the second half, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers to push Saint Mary's lead to a game-high 13, 39-26. All told, the Cardinal senior kicked off the half by scoring SMU' 12 points in the first 11:29 of the second half. Problem was, those 12 points would be all SMU would score during that span, while the Scots would score 19 points over the same span to whittle the Cardinals' lead to three.
And Macalester wasn't finished.
By the time Freetly netted his 11th and 12th points of the half on a dunk — accounting for all 12 of SMU's second-half points — Macalester had rattled off 10 unanswered points and held a 48-45 lead with 11:29 to play.
The Cardinals regained the lead, 65-64, on a
Hunter Phillips () field goal, but that would be the last time SMU would hold the advantage, as Macalester would score 12 of the final 19 points — including those seven free throws in the final seconds — to seal the win.
Freetly closed out the game with a career-high 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting with four 3-pointers and a 1-for-3 effort from the free throw line. Frechette chipped in 12 points for the Cardinals, who shot 45.9 percent from the field (28-for-61) with 10 3s and a 6 of 12 showing from the charity stripe.
The Cardinals (3-8 MIAC, 5-10 overall) are back in action — and back on their home court — on Wednesday, as Saint Mary's entertains Hamline in a 7 p.m. conference matchup at the Saint Mary's Gym.
