NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Visiting Gustavus Adolphus College used a balanced scoring attack to defeat the St. Olaf College men's basketball team by an 83-55 margin on Wednesday evening at Skoglund Center.

Gustavus (20-3, 14-0 MIAC) maintained its half-game lead over Saint John's University atop the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) standings by getting points from 12 different scorers on the night. Sophomore Jachin Mertes and senior Addison Metcalf were both in double figures for St. Olaf (2-20, 1-12 MIAC) in the loss.

Mertes reached double digits for the fifth time this season with a team-high 12 points to go with a team-best seven rebounds for the Oles, while Metcalf was 5-for-8 from the field on a 10-point evening. Junior Kobe Kirk moved into 15th place on St. Olaf's all-time scoring list with 1,135 points for his career after tallying nine points.

Wyatt Olson led Gustavus, which received votes in this week's D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, with 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting, while Adam Biewen added 10 points. Six other Gusties scored between five and nine points, as the visitors got 38 points from their bench in the victory.

St. Olaf put the game's first four points on the board before Gustavus got the next 10 to take the lead and never gave it back. A layup by Metcalf had the Oles with four at 12-8 four minutes in before the Gusties held St. Olaf scoreless for nearly four minutes to open up a double-digit lead.

St. Olaf got its deficit back down to single digits with 4:20 remaining in the half on a layup by Metcalf, but Gustavus closed the half on a 6-2 spurt to take a 37-24 lead at the break. In the second half, the Oles got no closer than nine points, as the Gusties led by as many as 33 down the stretch.

St. Olaf will travel to Macalester College for a 3 p.m. tip-off on Saturday, Feb. 15.