Ashland, WI - The Northland College Men's Basketball program got off to a slow start offensively on Friday evening, and eventually ended up dropping their first contest of the 2019-20 season to the Macalester Scots by a score of 72-56.

Five three-pointers early in the first half, including two apiece from the Scots Eric Sathy and Tyler McFarland, put Macalester on top, 21-8 nine minutes into the game. Later in the half, back-to-back threes from Sathy and Nikhil Smith extended the lead to 31-13. The advantage grew to as many as 22 points before the Lumberjacks scored the final four points of the half to make the score 43-25 Scots at the break. Macalester was 9-of-18 from three-point range in the first half while holding Northland to 28.6 percent shooting from the field.

The Scots started the second half with similar intensity and quickly went on an 18-7 run to extend their lead to 29.  The Jacks started to cut into the deficit over the last eleven minutes of the game and finished the game on a 21-7 run. 

Benny Larry Jr. and Max May led the Jacks in scoring with eight points apiece.  Harley Shear also added five rebounds and three assists for the Jacks.
Northland (0-1) travels to NCAA DII Bemidji State on Saturday (11/9) for a 5:30 tipoff.

Northland College is an NCAA Division III institution located in Ashland, WI. The LumberJacks and LumberJills sponsor 14 varsity sports and compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.