MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Carleton College men's basketball tied the school record for victories in a season after notching an 81-64 triumph at Concordia College-Moorhead. After trailing at intermission, the Knights (21-3, 16-3 MIAC) pulled away in the second half for their seventh consecutive victory.
Carleton, which received votes in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 national poll and is ranked second in the NCAA Region IX Rankings, had to wait an extra day before trekking northwest to Moorhead, as the contest originally scheduled for Wednesday was postponed 24 hours due to wintry weather in the Moorhead area. Ironically, the early January contest between these teams was also postponed for similar reasons.
Concordia (10-13, 8-10 MIAC) entered the game needing to win their final two games to sneak into the MIAC Playoffs, but the Cobbers were unable to keep pace with the Knights, who outscored their hosts 47-24 over the final 20 minutes.
Carleton point guard Luke Harris topped all scorers with 25 points, one shy of his career high. He went a career-best 5-for-5 performance from 3-point range and added seven rebounds with four assists. Jeremy Beckler contributed 20 points and seven boards, his sixth-straight 20-point performance and 17th such showing of the campaign.
Matthew Johnson, the Cobbers' leading scorer, kicked off the game with a solo 5-0 run. That was quickly countered by Harris, who went on a 5-0 run of his own. Concordia took back the momentum and earned its biggest lead of the half, 21-12, with 9:43 remaining before halftime.
Carleton responded with a 22-7 run over the next six minutes, but Concordia scored the final 12 points of the period to take a 40-34 lead into the intermission. Johnson led all halftime scorers with 17 points on five 3-pointers, while Beckler made his first six field goals attempts, including two from deep en route to 14 first-half points.
The hosts extended the lead to 10 to begin the second half, but the Knights responded with a 10-0 run, capped off by a pair of Harris triples, the second of which tied the game at 44-44 with 15:42 to play.
Concordia claimed the lead right back with consecutive baskets, but Carleton went on a game-changing 23-5 run over the following 10 minutes and were up 67-53 with less than six minutes still on the clock. From that point, the Knights were able to coast to their 21st victory of the campaign, tying the program record for wins in a season set by the 2005-06 squad.
Harris carried much of the offensive load for the Knights, scoring 18 of his 25 points in the second half. Beckler made 9-of-10 shots including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc. Spencer Goetz scored a career-high 10 points in addition to his always formidable defense. Matt Banovetz narrowly missed a double-double, contributing nine points and nine rebounds with two steals.
Johnson led the Cobbers with 23 points, but was held to just six after the break. Jacob Cook and Dylan Inniger joined him in double figures with 17 and 10 points, respectively.
The Knights shot 55.0 percent from the field (33-of-60) and 50.0 percent from deep (13-of-26). Concordia made 44.1 percent of its field goals (26-of-59) and shot 34.8 percent (8-of-26) from 3-point range.