St. Thomas, the No. 4-ranked team in the D3hoops.com poll, held Macalester to just one basket over the game's first 11 minutes, but the pesky Scots fought back before falling 75-63 at the Leonard Center.   The Tommies maintain their one-game lead in the MIAC standings over Gustavus and Carleton and improve to 14-1 overall and 9-1 in the league.  The Scots drop to 1-14 on the season, 1-9 in the MIAC.

Pierce Peters (So., Glenwood, Minn. / Minnewaska Area) netted 13 of his team-high 20 points in the second half, and also finished with a career-best 13 rebounds to register his third double-double of the season.  He also blocked three shots.  Justin Wasik (Fy., Park Ridge, Ill. / Maine South) came off the bench for 13 points and three assists.  Holden Bigler-Johnson (Sr., Austin, Tex. / Anderson) went 3-for-5 from outside the arc to finish with nine points.

Tommy Hannon scored 21 points and Anders Halverson added 18 points, eight rebounds and seven blocked shots for the Tommies.  This pair led UST to a 46-24 advantage in points in the paint.  St. Thomas is going for its sixth straight conference championship.

Even though St. Thomas turned the ball over just six times and shot 52%, compared to 33% for Macalester, the Scots kept in the game by going 7-for-16 on three-pointers and battling for a 12-3 advantage in offensive boards which led to a 19-4 margin in second chance points.  Mac also received 35 points from its bench.

UST scored the game's first six points and led 13-2 before Macalester netted its second basket at the 8:18 mark of the first half.  Mac's defense, however, kept the team alive and trailed 28-19 at the intermission.  The Tommie lead was in single digits for much of the second half.  St. Thomas led 51-44 with 8:15 left in the game before staging a 14-4 run to go up 65-48 with 3:45 to go.

The Scots are back in MIAC competition Saturday (Jan. 22) when they host Bethel at 3 p.m.