NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College men's basketball team raced out to a 49-18 halftime lead and cruised to a 96-57 triumph over visiting Concordia College-Moorhead.
Alex Gibbens (So./New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) led four Knights in double figures with a 16-point effort.
Carleton (1-1, 1-0 MIAC) never trailed, opening the game on a 7-0 run. The Knights never looked back and eventually widened the lead to as many as 49 points on multiple occasions during the second half. Carleton shot 57 percent overall from the field and went 13-of-30 (43 percent) from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Concordia (1-2, 0-1 MIAC) made only 33 percent of its shots, including 17 percent (3-of-18) from long range.
"I am really pleased with how our team played tonight," said Carleton head coach
Guy Kalland. "We needed a bounce-back performance after our game last Wednesday, and the guys responded with a great week of practice in preparation for tonight's game. It was a total team win as we got contributions from everyone on the roster, and we are excited for the guys to see their hard work pay off in the form of a quality conference win at home."
Carleton led 20-8 after
Miles Frisch (So./Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) hit a 3-pointer at the 10:46 mark of the first half. Concordia answered with a mini 4-0 run to get the deficit back to single digits. Gibbens answered with another triple, a bucket that sparked a 26-3 burst to put the game out of reach.
Luke Harris (Fy./Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont),
Jeremy Beckler (Jr./Lino Lakes, Minn./White Bear Lake), and
Matt Wyffels (Jr./Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) added 14, 13, and 12 points, respectively, to the Carleton stat sheet.
Alex Battist (Sr./Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) chipped in eight points, a game-high eight rebounds, and two blocked shots.
Rowan Nelson and Dylan Inniger had 10 points apiece to pace the Cobbers.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will step away from competition and focus on fall term final exams. The team then heads to the Lone Star State for games in San Antonio against Southwestern University and Trinity University and Nov. 26 and 27, respectively.
