WHEATON, Ill. - In its third ever taste of the NCAA Tournament and first since 2010, the Carleton College men's basketball dropped an 81-77 tilt to St. Norbert College despite a heroic 35-point effort from Jeremy Beckler.

St. Norbert (20-7) began the contest a perfect 5-for-5 from 3-point range and grabbed an early 25-13 lead. The deficit grew to as large as 16, but Carleton (24-4) clawed back and hung around, largely in part due to Beckler. He and Luke Harris scored all 11 points of a Knights' 11-3 run to end the first half and bring Carleton within six at intermission, 41-35.

Both sides shot the three well on high volume during the opening 20 minutes of play. St. Norbert was 8-of-15 (53.4 percent) while Carleton shot 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from behind the arc. Leading the way, Garrett Grzesk had a trio of triples for the Green Knights while Beckler had four makes from deep. Carleton's leading scorer had 20 first-half points, breaking the program record for the most points in an entire NCAA Tournament game, with the previous standard of 18 set by Dan Forkrud in 2006 against UW-Stout.

The Knights trimmed the deficit to five points on multiple occasions but could never get within a single possession. St. Norbert led by nine with less than a minute to go, but missed free throws gave Carleton a chance. Beck Page hit a three with ten seconds left to set the score at 81-77, and Carleton fouled quickly. There was excitement as the Green Knights missed both at the charity stripe, but the Knights' final attempt from deep was well defended, and time expired before either team collected the rebound.

Beckler added 15 in the second half to put him at 35 points for the second consecutive contest. It was the sixth 30-point performance of his campaign and seventh of his career. His seven 3=-pointers matched a career high.

Harris added 18 points as the only other Knight in double figures, along with five rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals. Matt Banovetz made three shots from beyond the arc, led the Knights with six boards, and contributed a block and a steal. Spencer Goetz dished out a game-leading seven assists.

For the Green Knights, five players scored in double figures, led by Carter Gebler's 20-point effort. St. Norbert shot 50.8 percent (30-of-59) from the field and 42.9 percent (9-of-21) from long range. Carleton shot 45.0 percent (27-of-60) and 40.0 percent (14-of-35) from 3-point range.

Carleton wrapped up the best season in program history with a 24-4 record, their first outright MIAC regular-season title in a century, the MIAC postseason crown, and the third NCAA Tournament berth in program history.

St. Norbert advanced to play host Wheaton College in the Second Round.