COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Seniors Luke Harris and Spencer Goetz combined for 36 points, but cold shooting up and down the roster during the first half doomed the Carleton College men's basketball team as the Knights' season ended with a 74-59 loss at No. 10-ranked Saint John's University in the finals of the MIAC Playoffs.
 
While the young Knights' (18-10) roster — which featured eight rookies and three sophomores among its 14 players — showed tremendous growth during the campaign, it was the veteran Johnnies (24-3) who clinched the MIAC's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Championships.
 
Harris, wearing '14' on his back for one last contest, finished the evening with a game-high 22 points and matched his season-high in 3-pointers, going 4-of-7 from range. The senior guard did all he could to spark a Knights' second-half comeback, as 21 of his 22 points came in the second stanza.
 
Goetz, sporting the number '3', ended his Knights hoops career doing what he did best: stuffing the stat sheet. Rallying for the game's first six points for the visitors, the senior concluded the night with 14 points, four rebounds, a steal, and a block.
 
Carleton and Saint John's have a history, with today's contest marking their sixth playoff meeting, where the Johnnies now lead 4-2 all-time. The two programs met in the MIAC Championship two years ago, where the Knights led the entire contest and captured their first conference postseason title since 2010. Today's matchup yielded a different result, as Carleton trailed by as much as 26 in a contest they only led in once.
 
Early on, the Knights held their own against the MIAC's best scoring offense. With less than five minutes gone by, the score sat knotted at 6-6.
 
The defenses were stout early and the scoreboard read 20-14 in SJU's favor approaching the 6:00 mark of first half. The Johnnie's put together an 11-1 run and carried a 35-19 advantage into the locker room for the break.
 
After a 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) first-half showing from the field, the Knights flipped the script, shooting an even .500 from the floor on 34 second-half attempts. Carleton out-scored Saint John's 40-39 during the second half.
 
With 14:38 left in the ballgame, Harris knocked down his third triple of the contest to trim the Johnnies lead to 46-33. Saint John's thwarted Carleton's comeback hopes, however, rattling off nine straight as part of a 19-6 run spanning nearly eight minutes to claim a 65-39 lead with 6:15 to play. The Knights, who closed their quarterfinal and semifinal victories with big scoring runs, went on a 10-0 spurt to pull within 70-55 with 1:56 to go, but Carleton ran out of time to complete a comeback.
 
Next to Harris and Goetz, Sam Koelling finished with eight points and two blocks, while Tysen Hayes corralled a career high eight rebounds. Carleton shot 23-of-57 (40.4 percent) from the floor and 6-of-14 (42.9 percent) from deep in the loss.
 
The hosts used a balanced attack, as seven Johnnies scored at least eight points with Thissen, Connor Schwob, and Luke Healy leading the way with 12 points apiece. Schwob pulled down a game-high 10 boards for a double-double. As a team, Saint John's went 25-of-57 (43.9 percent) from the field and 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) from distance.