Baquero's perfection bettered his 5-for-5 game on Jan. 31, 2004, also against St. Olaf. The six triples were one off his career high, set on Nov. 29 at Hawaii Pacific.
Dan Forkrud matched his career high with 26 points and added six rebounds, four assists and three steals while Kyle Beste tallied 20 points and eight rebounds. Jake Phillips offset a cold shooting day by tallying a career bests of eight rebounds and nine assists. Tommy Drake added nine points and five assists as the Knights tallied 26 assists on 36 field goals, setting a new team season-high in assists.
The win guarantees the Knights a MIAC Playoff home game, as Behtel upended Concordia-Moorhead today. If Carleton can win one of its last two games it will clinch the third seed and will likely host either Macalester College or Concordia in the MIAC Playoff quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. The Knights have won three straight overall and seven of their last eight games.
It marked the fourth straight win for Carleton (15-8, 13-5 MIAC) over their cross-town rival Oles. The Knights have won 15 of the last 20 match-ups against St. Olaf.
The Oles (7-17, 3-16 MIAC) were led by Tucker Weisman's 13 points. Mark Bergstrom added 12 points and Jon Bain had 10 points and six rebounds.
The Oles jumped out to early leads of 8-2 and 11-6 before Carleton got rolling. Khalid Lakanwal (Sr./Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) popped off the bench and drilled a three-pointer, tying the game at 11, and Phillips' only three-pointer one minute later gave the Knights the lead for good at 16-15 with 13:07 left in the first half. The Knights extended the lead to eight, using a 17-7 spurt and capping it off with three conseuctive Drake baskets. The Knights finished the half strong and took a commanding 43-30 lead at the break.
Carleton threatened to pull away out of the locker room, opening a 16-point spread before the Oles rattled off 10 unanswered points. Leading 57-51, the Knights used a Beste lay-up, wide-open threes from Baquero and Forkrud and a lay-up by Forkrud to extend back to a 12-point lead. The Oles got within eight with 6:30 left, but the Knights scored nine straight points, punctuated by a Forkrud lay-up to make it 76-59 with under five minutes remaining.
Carleton had arguable its best offensive game of the year, scoring the most points in a regulation game while shooting a season-best 55 percent, including 58 percent in the second half. The Knights seemingly had either a wide-open three-pointer or a lay-up on the majority of their possessions and had but nine turnovers, marking the third time in the last four games the Knights have turned it over less than 10 times. The Knights have won seven of their eight games in the MIAC's second half of the season.
The Knights return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 16, traveling to St. Mary's University for a 7:30 p.m. game. The contest can be heard live through the SMU website only. A win gives the Knights the third seed in the MIAC Playoffs.
Postgame notes:
Carleton's nine 3-pointers gives it 192 on the season. Only one other Knight squad has made 200 or more three-pointers in a season, as the 1996-97 club tallied a school record 222 in 26 contests… Coach Guy Kalland notched his 276 career win, moving alone into eighth place on the MIAC all-time coaching wins list. He needs one more win to match former Augsburg head man Ernie Anderson (277-267, 1948-70) on the list… Kyle Beste's 20 points pushed him past Mark Wandmacher '84 for fith on Carleton's all-time scoring list. Beste's 1,360 points trails Scott Krohn '93 for fourth on the all-time list… Dan Forkrud has scored 20 or more points in four of Carleton's last five games… Carleton will host a MIAC Playoff game for fourth time in school history, but they've won only one of the previous three times.
Carleton at St. Olaf 02/12/05 3:15 at Northfield, MN/Skoglund Center At Skoglund Center CAR 86, STO 73 CAR (14-8) Dan Forkrud 11-19 3-3 26; Anthony Baquero 8-9 1-1 23; Kyle Beste 10-17 0-2 20; Tommy Drake 4-9 1-4 9; Jake Phillips 1-8 0-0 3; Khalid Lakanwal 1-1 0-0 3; Mike Kootsikas 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 36-65 5-10 86. STO (7-16) Tucker Weisman 5-8 0-0 13; Mark Bergstrom 5-6 1-2 12; Jon Bain 3-10 4-7 10; Pat Fraser 4-6 0-0 9; Steve Banick 3-7 1-4 8; Jon Butala 3-7 0-0 6; Wade Pierce 1-3 3-4 5; Chad Norberg 2-2 0-0 5; Will Johnson 1-3 0-0 3; Bobby Hunter 1-1 0-0 2; Chris Clark 0-1 0-0 0; Eric Scholten 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-55 9-17 73. CAR........................... 43 43 - 86 STO........................... 30 43 - 73 3-point goals-CAR 9-23 (Anthony Baquero 6-6; Dan Forkrud 1-4; Khalid Lakanwal 1-1; Jake Phillips 1-7; Mike Kootsikas 0-1; Tommy Drake 0-4), STO 8-15 (Tucker Weisman 3-6; Mark Bergstrom 1-1; Steve Banick 1-3; Will Johnson 1-2; Chad Norberg 1-1; Pat Fraser 1-1; Jon Butala 0-1). Fouled out--CAR-None, STO-None. Rebounds-CAR 35 (Kyle Beste 8; Jake Phillips 8), STO 31 (Jon Bain 6). Assists-CAR 26 (Jake Phillips 9), STO 14 (Steve Banick 5). Total fouls-CAR 14, STO 14. A-1528