NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College men's basketball team held on for an 85-81 victory over Augsburg University on Saturday. Matt Drake's third consecutive game with 20-plus points, Sam Koelling's 17-point, 14-rebound double-double, and some clutch free-throw shooting keyed the Knights to victory.
 
Drake finished with 24 points, making 3-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc. Koelling's 14 rebounds marked a career high, and the junior added three assists and a block. Josh Engelberg racked up 16 points, made all six of his free throw tries, and doled out five assists. George Norsman came off the bench to tie or set career highs in points (nine), rebounds (seven), and assists (two).
 
Carleton (12-8, 8-3 MIAC) moved into sole possession of third place in the conference standings with the win, while Augsburg (14-6, 7-4 MIAC) slipped into a tie for fourth place.
 
Keenan Rodriguez got the game started with a triple, and the first nine minutes were tightly contested, with Andrew Weber and Trent Gomez trading threes to make the score 19-17 in favor of Carleton at the 10:39 mark. Drake and Koelling then turned up the heat, combining to author a 9-1 run that put the Knights up 28-18 with 8:04 remaining in the period. Augsburg got to within six points at two minutes left, but Carleton wrapped up the half with a 7-0 burst, capped by a Drake three on its final shot of the stanza, and headed into halftime up 41-28.
 
The Knights seemed to blow the game open early in the second-half thanks to a 19-5 run, with Omar Kaba jamming home a dunk to put the hosts up 62-41 at 9:44 to go in the game.
 
Augsburg, however, was able to finally whittle the lead down to single digits with a pair of Elias Batala free throws at 1:11, getting to within eight points at 78-70. The visitors forced a trio of turnovers with a frenetic press, and canned four more charity shots to make it a 78-74 game with 43 seconds left. Carleton was continually sent to the line in the dying seconds, and Patrick Smith, Engelberg, and Koelling stepped up, making a combined 7-of-8 free throws to ice the game.
 
The Knights made 22-of-26 free throws (84.6 percent), outdoing the Auggies at the line, who hit just 21-of-33 stripe shots (63.6 percent). Carleton outrebounded their foes, 45-37, and scored 42 paint points to 34 for Augsburg. The maize and blue connected on 48.3 percent of their field goal attempts, and 36.8 percent of their threes (7-for-19). Augsburg was held to 37.1 percent from the field and 27.6 percent from deep (8-for-29). The Knights dished out 15 assists, their most since December.
 
Elias Batala topped the Auggies with 22 points, making 12-of-20 free throw attempts and grabbing nine rebounds. JJ Semanko put together a 15-point, nine-board, five-assist game. Rodriguez and Hanif Muhammad scored 13 points apiece.
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton opens a tough three-game road trip with a 7:45 p.m. visit to Concordia College-Moorhead on Wednesday, Feb. 4.