The St. Lawrence University men's basketball team is heading back to the Liberty League championship game.
Gavin Macaulay scored 21 points to lead the Saints to a 63-48 win in their home semifinal against RPI Friday night at Burkman Gymnasium.
The win pushed the No. 2-seeded Saints to the conference championship – the details of which were finalized tonight. St. Lawrence will travel to Hobart to play the Statesmen Sunday with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament up for grabs.
RPI got off to a hot start after the opening tip, going on a 10-0 run to begin the game forcing an early timeout from St. Lawrence just shy of four minutes in. The rest of the half, neither team shot the ball well, but a plethora of RPI turnovers allowed the Scarlet and Brown to slowly chip into the lead.
St. Lawrence was able to cut the RPI lead to four at the break as they were trailed 25-21. Eight players had first half points, with Gavin Macaulay leading the way with five.
The Saints' offense then came to life in the second half. St. Lawrence scored the first eight points of the second half to take a 29-25 lead. Gavin Macaulay had back-to-back three pointers to cap off the run.
The Saints never looked back after this. Their lead only swelled from this point forward. They continued to force turnovers and shot the ball much better than they did in the first half. St. Lawrence was in control as they built a 50-35 lead with 6:39 to go, and held on until the final buzzer.
Gavin Macaulay led the team with 21 points. Andrew Cowan and Adam Dudzinski followed behind with nine and eight respectively. Aiden Macauley also had eight points to go along with six assists and six steals. As a team, the Saints had a season-high 18 steals and only three turnovers.
The victory helped St. Lawrence complete a 12-0 sweep of their home schedule, and the Scarlet and Brown have now won 18 straight home games dating back to the 2022-23 season.
Their final against Hobart will see them come face to face with another strong home team – the Statesmen are 13-0 at their home court of Bristol Gym this season.
Head coach Chris Downs says this fact presents a challenge for his group – but not one they can't overcome.
"Last year, we had it easy," he said. "We played all of the Liberty League tournament at home. This year we will have to travel to Hobart's gym – a place where they are 13-0. It's a big task, but this team will be up for it."
The teams split their regular season match-ups, with each team besting the other at their home gym. St. Lawrence will try to flip that script Sunday afternoon in Geneva, N.Y.