NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College women's basketball team showed resilience on Saturday, battling back from a 16-point deficit to make is one-possession game in the fourth quarter before ultimately succumbing to College of St. Scholastica, 65-52.
Carleton (6-11, 3-7 MIAC) got off to a slow start and trailed 21-6 after the opening quarter. The Knights found their rhythm and outscored St. Scholastica (12-5, 7-3 MIAC) by a 43-30 margin over the next 24 minutes of game action, pulling Carleton to within 51-49 with 6:00 remaining in the contest.
The Saints, who are in a four-way tie for fourth place in the MIAC standings and only one game behind the conference co-leaders, answered with a 12-0 run that put the game out of reach.
"I'm proud of how we responded after the first quarter," said Carleton head coach
Tammy Metcalf-Filzen. "That first quarter wasn't us. I liked our fight. Ultimately in the last four or five minutes, our lack of depth came through."
Carleton point guard
Addy Huss finished with team highs in points (19), rebounds (6), and steals (3).
Audrey Whitney added 14 points, while
Maggie Winesett added nine points.
Liesl McCallum battled through an early leg injury to tally eight points, five boards, and a game-high four assists.
Kloey Lind paced St. Scholastica with game highs of 20 points and 13 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Ava Huas and Evie Schmitz contributed 12 and 10 points, respectively, to the Saints' scoring effort. That duo entered the game shooting a combined 39 percent from deep but were held to a collective 4-for-19 (21 percent) from long range in this one.
After committing four turnovers and shooting only 20 percent in the first quarter compared to 53 percent for the Saints, the Knights cleaned things up at both ends of the floor during the second stanza, out-scoring the visitors by a 21-13 margin thanks to 44 percent shooting to make it a seven-point game at intermission.
The offenses cooled a bit in the third quarter as both teams scored 12 points in the period, but the fourth quarter brought more drama. Carleton trailed 51-41 before putting together an 8-0 run that cut the deficit to a one score with six minutes still to play.
Haus, the Saints' leading scorer this season and the MIAC's top 3-point shooter, had been held to only six points and a 0-for-7 performance beyond the arc before draining back-to-back triples to cap the Saints' late game-sealing 12-0 run.
The Saints shot 45.0 percent overall but only 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from 3-point range. Carleton shot 35.1 percent from the field and 6-of-18 (33 percent) from beyond the arc.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton hosts Saint Mary's University for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday, January 28.
