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Today (Dec. 5) the Saint Benedict Basketball team travels to St. Paul to take on the Macalester Scots in a matchup of MIAC opponents with identical conference records. After a quality win over the Carleton Knights on Monday the Blazers will be looking for another win today in order to establish themselves as one of the conference powerhouses. The Scots come into the game having won back-to-back conference games against St. Olaf and St. Catherine.

The Records:
Saint Benedict: 4-2 (2-1 MIAC)
Macalester: 3-3 (2-1 MIAC)

Key Players:
CSB:
Jr., W Brianna Barrett (11.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.3 apg)
Sr., W Jamie Wollin (6.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.2 apg)
Jr., W Tish Alexander (8.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.0 apg)
MAC:
Sr., G Kyanna Jones (13.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 3.2 apg, 4.3 stl)
Jr., G Taylor Pike (11.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg)
Jr., P Veronika Jakubovie (6.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 1.3 apg)

Last Time Out:
On Monday the Blazers played an all-around solid game offensively and defensively for all 40 minutes to defeat the Knights of Carleton. The Blazers forced 20 Knight turnovers, and scored 20 of their 65 points in transition to help keep the Knights at bay. Barrett led all scorers with 16 while Wollin added 14 points and nine rebounds. On defense the Blazers held the Knights to 15 buckets on 43 shots, both season lows for Blazer opponents.

About the Knights:
After a rocky 1-3 start, the Scots have gained momentum over their past games with victories over St. Olaf and St. Catherine. Both wins came by five points or less. After being picked to finish 11th out of 12 teams in the conference, Macalester has raised some eyebrows around the league with a couple of early wins. However, they have been near the bottom in shooting from the floor in the MIAC thus far, having made only 33.7% of their field goal attempts this year. What has kept them in games this year has been their defense, giving up an average of only 55.3 points per game.

The Storyline:
This game will be a matchup between two teams who both have something to prove. After a less-than-satisfying 2011-2012 campaign in which they failed to make the conference tournament, the Blazers are out to prove that they still belong among the conference leaders. After being picked by the coaches to finish second-to-last in the conference, the Scots will be out to prove that they can compete against one of the conference's most prestigious programs.

Blazer Keys to the Game:
Points off Turnovers: The Scots' offense ranks fourth-best in the conference in turnovers but the Blazer defense has been one of the conference's best in manufacturing points off turnovers. They lead the conference in both steals and points per game. In order to get a win today the Blazers will need to win the giveaway/takeaway differential and capitalize off turnovers.

Brilliant Barrett: Another key to the game will be feeding Brianna Barrett, who has had the hot hand of late. She has led the team in scoring in three of the past four games, and has shot 53% from the floor over those same four games.

Get to the free throw line: Free throw shooting has been a huge part of the Blazer offense this season. They average 3.4 more made free throws per game than any other MIAC team and rank amongst the conference leaders in free throw percentage. On the flip side the Scots have had problems staying out of foul trouble. Their 17.5 fouls per game are fourth-worst in the conference.