Game two of the Carthage College (WI) Tournament on Saturday afternoon pitted the Alma College men's basketball team against Benedictine University (IL) in the third place game. The Scots again came out on the wrong end of a 91-70 score to finish winless in the two contests.

For the season, Alma is now 0-5, while Benedictine improved to 1-2 for 2013-14.

"Right now we are going through the most mentally weak stretch I think I have ever been a part of with a team," remarked Scots Head Coach Sam Hargraves. "There is just no way to sugar coat it. All we can do is go back to work in practice. The problem with that is we don't play how we practice. Usually bad teams, which we are right now, play how they practice and lose because of bad habits and lack of discipline. We are just the opposite. Our practices are full of competition and confidence. At some point the pain of losing will outweigh the fear of failure that we have and things will change.

"We don't have enough talent to make up for soft, nervous play or make too many mental errors. We have very little room for error with size and quickness limitations."

The first half was closely contested at the beginning and the end, with the middle minutes belonging to Benedictine. Alma had an early 5-2 lead after a three-pointer by So. F DJ Beckman (Shelby/Shelby) at 18:41 of the half. Then the Eagles slowly built leads of six points on a couple of occasions before a 9-0 run gave them a 28-15 advantage at the 7:40 mark.

Benedictine had a 15-point lead at 39-24 with 4:03 left before the Scots put together a 15-4 run of their own to cut the deficit to 43-39. The final basket of the run came on a lay-up from Fr. C Ivy Johnson (Rockford/Rockford) with seven seconds left in the half. The Eagles then took a 45-39 lead into halftime.

Alma shot 50% (14 of 28) in the first 20 minutes, including five of 11 from beyond the three-point line. Benedictine was good on 17 of 27 shots (63%) while also making two of five from the other side of the arc.

The Scots scored the first two points of the second half but Benedictine started to put the hammer down. A 23-6 run gave the Eagles a 68-47 advantage with 11:49 remaining and they would not have to really look in the rearview mirror the rest of the way.

The Scots never got closer than 15 points down, the last time being at 81-66 on two free throws by Fr. C Quinton Cook (Brandon/Brandon-Ortonville). However, Benedictine closed it out from there and walked off the hardwood with a final 91-70 margin of victory.

On a otherwise bleak stat sheet, So. F Scott Nikodemski (Rockford/Rockford) finished with a career-high 29 points on nine of 10 shooting, including 10 of 12 from the free throw line. He also added a team-high four assists and had three rebounds.

As a team, the Scots finished with 43% shooting (23-54) and were six of 21 in three-pointers. The Eagles shot an impressive 60% (28 of 47) and connected on three of 11 from beyond the arc. For the second night in a row, there was a large discrepancy at the free throw line. Benedictine hit on 32 free throws (40 attempts), while the Scots had 18 on 23 tries.

Alma is now off until December 3 when they host North Park University (IL) at Art Smith Arena.