ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Carleton College women's basketball team pushed its win streak to four games as the Knights rallied for a 61-53 road win over Hamline University. Unfortunately, results elsewhere in the conference did not break Carleton's way, and the Knights were eliminated from postseason contention.
 
"Typical of this team, we battled to the end and found a way to pull out the win," said Carleton head coach Tammy Metcalf-Filzen. "Our defense was key in the fourth quarter. It was a real team effort once again."
 
Carleton (11-13, 8-11 MIAC) led 15-6 after the first quarter, only to see Hamline (14-10, 9-10 MIAC) score 29 points in the second frame to take a 38-30 lead into halftime.
 
The Knights trailed throughout the third quarter and faced a 50-45 deficit to begin the final stanza. Carleton outscored the Pipers 16-3 over the final 10 minutes, limiting Hamline to a 1-for-16 shooting performance over that stretch.
 
The Knights shot 42 percent overall and from beyond the 3-point line, while Hamline made only 28 percent of its shots in dropping its fifth consecutive contest.
 
Katie Chavez (Sr./Westminster, Colo./Holy Family) had a game-high 22 points as she matched her career high with six 3-pointers. Anna Hughes (Jr./Glenview, Ill./New Trier), Jill Yanai (So./Glendale, Calif./Glendale), and Samantha Cooke (Sr./St. Louis, Mo./Incarnate Word Academy) accounted for eight points apiece.
 
Margie Clauss (Fy./Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn) and Hughes led Carleton's work on the glass. Both Knights posted career highs as they pulled down 10 and nine rebounds, respectively.
 
Lydia Lecher paced the Pipers with 15 points, while Reilly Geistfeld posted 13 points, nine rebounds, and five steals.
 
PLAYOFF PICTURE: Despite picking up the win, Carleton needed help elsewhere in the conference in its pursuit of the playoff berth. The Knights needed either a St. Catherine or Concordia loss, but both of those teams pulled out home wins on Wednesday.
 
A Carleton victory at St. Catherine in the regular-season finale on Saturday would give the Knights a 9-11 record in MIAC action, slotting Carleton into a three-way tie (with St. Catherine and the loser of Saturday's Concordia-Hamline game) for sixth place in the conference standings. The head-to-head tiebreaker does not resolve anything in that situation, sending the teams to a point system tiebreaker where Carleton comes up just short to St. Catherine as the Wildcats benefit from having an extra road win, which is weighted slightly more than the Knights' extra home win.
 
UP NEXT FOR THE KNIGHTS: Carleton closes the year with a 3 p.m. tip-off at St. Catherine University.