NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Luke Harris (Fy./Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) and Matt Banovetz (So./Edina, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels) both had a career-best 20 points to help the Carleton College men's basketball team hold off College of St. Scholastica, 96-90, on Saturday afternoon. The high-scoring affair saw all five starters for both teams finish in double figures.
 
"All conference wins are good wins, and this one is no different," said Carleton head coach Guy Kalland. "We had a nice run at the end of the first half and were able to stretch the lead in the second half before some late turnovers and some missed free throws made the last few minutes more interesting than we needed to. Overall, we made enough plays to get the win, and we'll move our focus to a very tough Saint John's team on Tuesday."
 
Carleton (6-2, 3-1 MIAC) shot 52 percent for the game, including 40 percent (4-of-10) from 3-point range.
 
Harris scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half, while Banovetz picked up his second double-double of the season by grabbing 11 rebounds. Jeremy Beckler (Jr./Lino Lakes, Minn./White Bear Lake) added 19 points, and Alex Gibbens (So./New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) tallied a career-best 17 points. Beck Page (Jr./Longmont, Colo./Longmont) was the other Knight to reach double-digits in points, finishing with 11 points.
 
St. Scholastica (1-6, 0-5 MIAC) shot 63 percent in the first half and finished at a 54 percent clip overall in posting its highest point total of the season. Nick Carlson scored a season-best 20 points to pace the Saints, while Cade Googleye accounted for a career-best 18 points. Jack Silgen also contributed 18 points with Quinn Fischer and Jeff Moore chipping in 14 and 11 points, respectively.
 
The game was tightly-contested for much of the first half, but Carleton closed the period on an 11-2 run and carried a 50-39 lead into intermission.
 
The Knights slowly stretched their lead out to 82-60 with 7:40 still to play, but the Saints used a 19-4 run to pull within 86-79 with 1:21 left to go. The Knights stifled the St. Scholastica rally by making 8-of-10 free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory.
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton hits the road to take on Saint John's University on Tuesday, Dec. 14 at 7:00 p.m.
 
NOTE: This is the fourth time this season that Carleton scored at least 95 points in the game, tying the program record. The Knights reached that scoring total four times during both the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. Today's scoring outburst comes on the heels of a 95-57 win over Martin Luther on Tuesday, making this only the third time in the program's 112-year history that the Knights have scored at least 95 points in back-to-back games:
• Feb. 8-13, 1995 (beat Macalester, 120-82… and Bethel, 101-83)
• Jan. 8-11, 1997 (beat Hamline, 96-72… beat Augsburg, 95-68)
• Dec. 7-11, 2021 (beat Martine Luther, 95-57… beat St. Scholastica, 96-90)