SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men's basketball team kept its hot streak alive Wednesday night, rolling past Macalester College 91-63 to secure its seventh straight victory. The win also marked a historic milestone for
Evan Wieker, who reached 1,000 career points in the dominant performance. With the victory, the Gusties improve to 10-0 in MIAC play for the first time since the 1951-52 season.
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The game started as a back-and-forth battle, with the Scotts keeping pace early before
Jake Schmitt hit a three-pointer that switched the momentum and tied the score at 16-16 at 12:07. Wieker made his first points of the night to help the Gusties jump to 19-16 over the Scots.
Isaac Matti later stretched the lead to double digits, drilling a three from the top of the key to make it 32-22. The Gusties carried that momentum into halftime, leading 44-35, with a strong first half from
Wyatt Olson, who tallied 10 points and five rebounds.
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Coming out of the break, the Gusties found their rhythm and never looked back.
Myles Barnette kicked off the second half with a floating jumper to push the Gusties ahead 63-43 at the 12:05 mark. A few minutes later, Wieker drained a three-pointer, reaching the 1,000-point milestone and igniting the home crowd. The Gusties capitalized on the energy, launching a 17-0 run behind a scorching performance from
Eli Wolff, who scored 12 points in just two minutes, going a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the arc.Â
"First off, hats off to Ev on reaching the 1,000 milestone," said Head Coach
Justin DeGrood. "What I'm most proud of is that in the journey to get here he has embodied being such a selfless teammate and the scores were a mere byproduct of that. It was fun to see him reach it at home in front of our faithful, something I'm sure he will remember forever.Â
"The game tonight was one of just continuing to lean on the opponent and believe that over time the chips will fall. I felt like our guys generated a lot of great looks and didn't produce great percentages but our offensive rebounding was relentless and contagious. The guys just kept battling and found a way. Our defense really settled in during the second and limited a really dangerous Macalester offense. Fun to see the guys respond with more of "us" in the second 20."
 Gustavus ruled the glass, out-rebounding Macalester 41-18. Olson led the team with 17 points while shooting 88.9 percent and grabbing nine boards.
Spencer Swanson added 14 points, and Wolff provided a jump off the bench with 12 points on a flawless shooting night.
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Gustavus heads to Minneapolis for another MIAC matchup against Augsburg University on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Gusties beat the Auggies 97-74 on Dec. 4.Â
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