Brock Citterman paced the Cobbers (4-6, 3-3 MIAC) with 13 points and Mark Dixon tallied 11 points, six assists and five rebounds before fouling out in the final minutes. Luke Linz was also in double figures with 10 points.
The Cobbers have lost their first two MIAC games without star guard Keith Eckhoff, who suffered a season-ending knee injury at the end of December. The two losses have come by a combined six points, and both have been on the road.
Jake Phillips added 11 points and four rebounds and Dan Forkrud and Brian Sharkey added nine points each for Carleton (6-5, 3-3 MIAC), which evened its MIAC mark after opening the conference slate with three straight defeats.
The Knights started slowly, trailing by as many as seven in the opening seven minutes. They slowly battled back, taking their first lead of the game on a pair of Jay Melson free throws with four seconds left in the first half.
Carleton opened up an eight-point lead with 11 minutes, 44 seconds left in the game, but the Cobbers got the consecutive Citterman triples and a rare four-point play by Dixon and then took the lead on a Jason Miller interior basket with less than five minutes left.
Johnson answered with an old-fashioned three-point play, but Ryan Templeton's two free throws tied the game at 54-54 with 3:20 left. After empty possessions by both teams, Melson split the Cobber defense from the top of the key and scored and Carleton came up with a stop on the other end. Carleton split on two trips to the line, but two Cobbers fought over the rebound on the first set and it went out-of-bounds back to the Knights and a back-tap resulted in an offensive rebound on the other miss and Phillips converted the ensuing free throws to make it a five-point spread less than 30 seconds left.
Citterman drained a three off a dribble hand-off with 23 seconds to cut Carleton's lead to a pair. Phillips split on a pair on the other end, leaving it at a one poessession game, but the junior point guard came up with a steal at the top of the key and raced to the other end with the ball. Concordia finally caught him and fouled with two seconds left, but Phillips made both charity tosses to seal the win.
Carleton shot 44 percent compared to 45 percent for the Cobbers. The Cobbers had one more turnover than the Knights (15-14), but the Knights converted on the Cobber miscues, holding a 17-6 edge in points off turnovers. Carleton also held a 13-5 edge in free-throw points, going 13-for-16 compared to 5-of-5 for the visitors.
The Knights return to action on Saturday, Jan. 7, travelling to Macalester College for a 3 p.m. contest. The game can be heard live on Knights Online and locally on KQCL 95.9 FM/Power 96.
Concordia-Moorhead vs Carleton College 01/04/06 8:00 pm at Northfield, Minn. (West Gym) At Northfield, Minn. (West Gym) CARLETON COLLEGE 62, CONCORDIA-MOORHEAD 57 CONCORDIA-MOORHEAD (4-6, 3-3 MIAC) Brock Citterman 5-9 0-0 13; Mark Dixon 4-12 1-1 11; Luke Linz 5-12 0-0 10; Jason Miller 4-5 0-0 8; Anthony Boike 3-6 0-0 7; Ryan Templeton 0-3 4-4 4; Cody Dyshaw 1-2 0-0 2; E.J. Adams 1-1 0-0 2; Eric Meichsner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-51 5-5 57. CARLETON COLLEGE (6-5, 3-3 MIAC) Zach Johnson 9-13 1-1 20; Jake Phillips 2-7 5-6 11; Brian Sharkey 3-6 0-0 9; Dan Forkrud 4-12 0-0 9; Jay Melson 2-4 2-2 6; Tommy Drake 1-6 3-5 5; Tucker Schieck 0-0 2-2 2; Bobby Schmitz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-48 13-16 62. Concordia-Moorhead............ 29 28 - 57 Carleton College.............. 30 32 - 62 3-point goals-Concordia-Moorhead 6-20 (Brock Citterman 3-5; Mark Dixon 2-6; Anthony Boike 1-4; Ryan Templeton 0-1; Cody Dyshaw 0-1; Eric Meichsner 0-1; Luke Linz 0-2), Carleton College 7-20 (Brian Sharkey 3-5; Jake Phillips 2-6; Dan Forkrud 1-1; Zach Johnson 1-3; Tommy Drake 0-3; Jay Melson 0-2). Fouled out--Concordia-Moorhead-Mark Dixon, Carleton College-None. Rebounds-Concordia-Moorhead 29 (Luke Linz 5; Mark Dixon 5), Carleton College 28 (Tommy Drake 7; Dan Forkrud 7). Assists-Concordia-Moorhead 12 (Mark Dixon 6), Carleton College 10 (Jake Phillips 2; Zach Johnson 2; Dan Forkrud 2). Total fouls-Concordia-Moorhead 19, Carleton College 11.