NORTHFIELD, Minn. - Just about every Carleton College men's basketball team member that saw the floor made major contributions as the Knights toppled cross-town rival St. Olaf College 84-75 to sweep the regular-season series.
 
Five players scored in double figures for Carleton (12-7, 9-5 MIAC). Luke Harris was the Knights' top scorer, putting up 23 points – for this 12^th game of 20-plus points this season – while snatching three steals. Miles Frisch came off the bench and poured in a career-high 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Spencer Goetz earned his first career double-double by notching 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, and the junior also had a game-high four assists to lead the game.
 
Alex Gibbens scored 14, going 6-of-10 from the floor, and Matt Banovetz rounded out the quintet of double-digit scorers with a near-double-double of his own, finishing with 14 points and nine rebounds.
 
St. Olaf (8-12, 7-8 MIAC) came out second best despite a career game from sophomore Kobe Kirk, who scored 44 points on 13-of-22 shooting overall, a 6-of-9 showing from 3-point range, and a 12-of-14 performance from the charity stripe. That was the second-most points in a game by a MIAC player this season and the highest single-game point total for St. Olaf since at least 1994-95 campaign. Josh Albers was the only other Ole in double digits, finishing with 14 points.
 
The Knights shot 50.8 percent from the field, the third consecutive game they have made over half their shots. They went 7-of-18 (38.9 percent) from 3-point range and 11-of-14 (78.6 percent) from the line. Carleton won the rebound battle, 39-29, including 13 offensive boards leading to 19 second-chance points.
 
The game began with the teams missing their first five combined shots, but eventually things picked up, and St. Olaf got out to an 8-4 lead after Kobe Kirk hit a three at 16:57. Carleton responded with a 10-2 run and played form in front the rest of the way. A Sam Koelling layup with 46 seconds to go gave the hosts a 42-31 lead at the break.
 
Spearheaded by 23 second-half points from Kirk, the Oles whittled the lead down to as little as four at 59-55 with over seven minutes remaining. The Knights kept their longtime rivals at bay in large part due to making 60 percent of their shots over the final 14 minutes of the game. With 49 seconds to go in the game Goetz fired a long pass that looked more like it belonged at Laird Stadium down the court for Gibbens, who hit the layup to take Carleton's lead back to 10 and put the game to bed.
 
Carleton has now won 5-of its last-6 games and improved to 7-1 at West Gym this season.
 
The Oles shot 41.9 percent overall, and went a near-identical 42.3 percent (11-of-26) from 3-point range. They also hit 12-of-14 free throws, although all 14 were shot by Kirk.
 
Up Next for the Knights:
Carleton continues its homestand with a Saturday matinee against Concordia University-Moorhead at West Gym. Tip-off on Feb. 3 is set for 3:00 p.m.