ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Carleton women’s basketball team (10-12, 9-10 MIAC) kept its hopes for a playoff berth alive with a 66-59 road victory over the College of St. Catherine. The Knights overcame a less-than spectacular second-half shooting performance, thanks in part to the efforts of seniors Hannah Oken-Berg (Portland, Ore./Lincoln) and Sarah Lincoln (Rockford, Minn.)
The pair of all-conference performers combined for 22 points and 21 rebounds on this night. Their efforts balanced out a 21-point, eight-rebound performance by the Wildcats’ Laura Kalbfell, the conference’s leading scorer.
After shooting 56 percent from long range in the opening stanza, the Knights were only 1-of-11 from three-point land and 29 percent from the field during the second half. The Carleton defense proved just stingy enough on this night, holding St. Kate’s to 28 percent shooting for the contest.Carleton entered the night facing the prospect of being eliminated from the playoff hunt, finding itself three games back with only four games remaining. The victory keeps the dream alive for at least another few days.
Tonight’s win moves Carleton into a tie with St. Catherine (12-10, 9-10 MIAC) for seventh place in the MIAC standings. Both squads are now two games behind Bethel, which dropped a 72-52 decision to St. Thomas.
Trailing 21-15 with 8:50 remaining the in the first half, the Knights finished the half on a 25-7 run to close the first half.
The lead stretched out to 16 early in the second half, but the Wildcats began chipping away and closed to within 52-49 after Kalbfell grabbed her own wild shot and scored the putback with just over six minutes left in the contest.
The teams exchanged runs over the next few minutes, but the Knights came up with enough defensive stops down the stretch. Clinging to a 61-59 advantage, Carleton got a stop with less than 30 seconds remaining, and Annie Isler (Sr./Hopkins, Minn.) and Oken-Berg added five free throws in the closing seconds to seal the victory.
Carleton got solid production off the bench, including a 10-point effort by Sarah Kunelius (Sr./Eagan, Minn.) and an eight-point, five-rebound performance from junior Annie Eckhoff (Northfield, Minn.)
The law of averages finally caught up with Carleton guard Ally Weaver (So./Iowa City, Iowa/West) tonight. The leading three-point shooter in the conference, she connected on 16-of her first-22 attempts this month, including a 2-for-2 performance in the first half before missing all six long-range attempts after halftime.
The Knights’ next chance to move closer to a potential playoff berth is Saturday, Feb. 14 when Macalester College visits for a women’s-men’s doubleheader. The first game tips off at 1 p.m., and it will be Carleton’s Pink Zone event to increase awareness of and raise donations for breast cancer research. Knights Online will provide a live video webcast of both games.