<rleton College Knights turned a reasonably close game in the first half into a rout in the second with a 75-51 victory over cross town rival St. Olaf. The Knights were up 27-20 at the half but outscored the Oles 48-31 in the second half on sixty percent shooting.
St. Olaf and Carleton both played good defense in the first half but the Knights provided an offensive explosion in the second with their highest scoring half of the year. As head coach Tammy Metcalf-Filzen, who is now just two wins away from her 200th with Carleton, said in her post game interview (as available from the Carleton web site), “I thought we were for some reason much more relaxed (in the second half) looking for better shots and defensively we picked it up as well.”
The Knights were led by freshman point guard Ally Weaver who scored 16 points. Weaver was also perfect from the charity stripe as she was 9-9 on free throws. Weaver came off the bench to score 14 of those points in the second half. All 12 Knights who saw action put points on the board.
Sarah Kunelius ’09 also provided plenty of production off the bench as she had a season high of 12 points including a couple of clutch threes. Kunelius leads the Knights in three point shooting on the year at just over 42 percent. Sarah Lincoln just missed a double-double tying a season high with nine boards to go along with 11 points. Lincoln also led the Knights in minutes for the contest. Lincoln is currently the Knights leading scorer and rebounder on the year averaging 10.4 points and 5.3 boards a game.
Annie Isler ‘08 also provided her usual solid minutes at the guard spot as she tied a career high with six steals to go along with her seven points and team leading three assists. Amber Connor ‘10 and Hannah Oken-Berg ‘09 helped out in the scoring category by each picking up nine in the game.
St. Olaf only had one lead in the game and that came at 3-2 after only 1:37 of game play and after that the Knights never really looked back. They held St. Olaf to just 39 percent shooting and did not let any of their players reach double digits. They held Elyse Erickson who averages 17 points a game to just 9 in the contest. Hannah Oken-Berg who played a fantastic defensive game against Erickson, summed it up in her post game interview (also from the Carleton web site) by saying “Olaf is always our rival and is always playing tough.” This was a big one for Carleton as it snaps a mini funk and any win over Olaf is a big win.