COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It's not how you start; it's how you finish. That was the case for the Carleton College men's basketball team as the Knights trailed by 19 points with 11:00 remaining before rallying to defeat Carroll (Wis.) University, 79-72, in the championship game of the Rocky Mountain Thanksgiving Classic.
Jeremy Beckler had a game and season-high 28 points and
Luke Harris added a career-best 25 points.
"An incredible team effort and comeback by our group tonight," said Carleton head coach
Ryan Kershaw. "As well as we executed last night in the first half, we essentially did the opposite tonight and dug ourselves a pretty big deficit. I am so proud of our team for their fight and resiliency tonight. To be able to leave Colorado Springs with wins against two quality opponents is a really good start for this group, and to do it in the manner in which we did it in makes it that much more enjoyable."
Carleton (3-0) has opened the season with three straight wins for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign.
Beckler's 28-point effort was tied for the second-highest of his career and marked his 16th career game with at least 20 points.
Harris has surpassed 20 points in all three games this season and leads MIAC players in scoring at 24.0 points per game. Tonight, he added four assists, four rebounds, and three steals.
Matt Banovetz and
Alex Gibbens also reached double figures in scoring, tallying 13 and 10 points, respectively. The former had a team-best eight rebounds, the latter had four boards and three assists, and they each had two steals.
Carleton's first basket of the game did not come until Banovetz drained a 3-pointer at the 15:34 mark of the opening half. Fortunately, the defense started out strong and kept the Pioneers in check.
Trailed only 16-15 midway through the first half, but Carroll put together a 16-2 run over the next 5:15 of game action. The Pioneers eventually carried a 37-26 advantage into intermission.
After a 3-pointer by Harris pulled Carleton to within 44-36 at the 16:20 mark of the second half, Carroll scored 10 consecutive points. The Pioneers appeared to have the game in the bag as they eventually built a 58-39 lead with 11:00 left on the clock.
The next seven minutes changed the outlook of the game. Carleton hit 10-of its next-14 shots and forced seven turnovers as the Knights went on a 24-5 burst that knotted the score at 63-63. Harris accounted for nine points during the run, Beckler scored seven points, and both Banovetz and Gibbens chipped in four points apiece.
Later trailing 66-65 with 2:45 remaining, Beckler nailed a step back 3-pointer, and Carleton would not play from behind the remainder of the game.
After Carroll tied the game at 68-68, Harris hit a pair of free throws, and
Chuck Sweat connected on a triple at the 1:28 mark, accounting for the only points scored on the evening by the Carleton bench.
The Knights made four free throws in the final 23 seconds to seal the win.
All told, Carleton outscored Carroll 40-14 over the final 11 minutes. After shooting only 35.6 percent up until that point, the Knights made 13-of their-18 (72 percent) shots from the field the rest of the way, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Carroll went 4-of-12 overall (33 percent) with eight turnovers.
After shooing 32 percent in the first half, the Knights shot 59 percent in the second half and finished at 46 percent overall. Carroll shot 48 percent in each half.
Three players reached double figures for the Pioneers: Kobe Simpson (14 points), Aaron Wafford (13), and Eckahelo Simpson (10).
Both teams made 29 field goals in the game, with Carroll holding a slight 9-8 edge in made 3-pointers. The difference was the ability of Beckler, Harris, and Gibbens to get charity stripe as the trio made 13 free throws compared to only five for the Pioneers.
Up Next for the Knights
This was only the halfway point of Carleton's season-opening road trip. The Knights play three more times before playing their home opener. Next up is a 7:00 p.m. tipoff at Augsburg University on Wednesday, Nov. 30.
