NORTHFIELD, Minn. - The Class of 2024 put on a show as the Carleton College men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a convincing 90-51 victory over Saint Mary's University. With the win, the Knights locked in the No. 2 seed in the MIAC Playoffs, earning a first-round bye in the conference tournment.
 
Before today's action, the Knights' (17-8, 14-6 MIAC) home crowd honored the six seniors on the roster: Matt Banovetz, John Carragher, Miles Frisch, Alex Gibbens, Christo Polydorou, and Chuck Sweat. To a man, the seniors added crucial contributions to the Carleton victory.
 
Carragher led the Knights with 15 points, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, with both of those statistics marking career highs. Four other Knights finished in double figures, including 13 from Banovetz and 12 from Sweat. Gibbens and Luke Harris rounded out the group of double-digit scorers with 11 apiece. Sweat's 12 points came on a 4-of-7 day from 3-point range, which matched his career-high for triples made.
 
Spencer Goetz contributed an all-around performance, recording six points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. Gibbens was impressive on the defensive end, notching a career-high three blocks and snatching three steals, matching a career-best.
 
Polydorou recorded his first tallies of the season, putting up six points to help the Knights pull away in the second half. That include an acrobatic and-1 layup, bringing the Carleton crowd to its collective feet
 
As a team, the Knights hit 36 of their 65 shot attempts (55.4 percent) and sank 15-of-31 attempts from deep (48.4 percent). On the defensive end, Carleton held the Cardinals (8-17, 7-13 MIAC) to 22-of-55 shooting (40 percent) and 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from distance.
 
Both teams started out slow on the offensive end. After starting the contest 2-of-9 as a team, Carleton went on a 16-2 run to open up a 27-7 margin midway through the stanza.
 
The Knights' defense forced eight Cardinals' turnovers in the first half, converting those miscues into 16 points on the offensive end. Carleton also recorded 16 second-chance points in the opening 20 minutes off seven offensive rebounds. The Knights closed out the opening period leading 42-25, matching their largest lead of the ballgame at the time.
 
Carleton's offense then came out of intermission hot, missing only seven shots in the first 10 minutes and pushing their lead to 26. The Knights shot 20-of-32 (62.5 percent) from the field in the second half, including 8-of-16 from downtown.
 
Saint Mary's was led in scoring by Breyton Buysman with 17 points, and Cameron Mallory with 14.
 
Up Next for the Knights:
The defending MIAC Playoff champions will begin the postseason with a semi-final game against an opponent to be determined. Tipoff is at West Gym at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22. A Knights' victory would advance them to the MIAC Playoff Championship two days later with an NCAA berth on the line.