NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Senior Austin Korba led the St. Olaf College men's basketball team with 22 points and nine rebounds, but the Oles fell to Bethel University, 73-64, in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) contest Monday night at Skoglund Center.

Despite St. Olaf (11-10, 10-6 MIAC) trailing by as many as 16 points, the Oles even the score with Bethel (14-7, 11-5 MIAC) at 60-60 with 4:41 remaining, but the Royals outscored the Oles 13-2 in the final four minutes of the game to secure the victory.

Korba led the Oles with 22 points, nine rebounds and two steals and junior Troy Diggins Jr. reached double figures with 14 points.  Sophomore Dominic Bledsoe added nine points, five assists, four steals and four rebounds.

A three-pointer from Diggins evened the score, 8-8, early in the first half, but Bethel went on a 14-0 run midway through the first half to take a 16-point lead, the largest of the game. The Oles outscored the Royals 20-8 in the last 7:42 of the half and cut the deficit to four heading into the second half at 39-35.

St. Olaf scored the first six points of the second half and took a two-point lead after a layup from Bledsoe with 16:48 to go in the second half. In the next minute and a half, there were two ties and two lead changes as a three-point play from Korba put the Oles ahead at 44-43.

A Diggins three-pointer extended St. Olaf's lead to four with 13:26 to go, but a layup from Bethel's Granger Kingland evened the score at 51-51 just a minute later.

Junior Noah Beck finished a layup inside to put the Oles ahead by four, but the Royals answered with back-to-back three pointers to regain the lead. Bledsoe finished back-to-back layups and put St. Olaf ahead by two before Bethel would score the next 12 points to take a 10-point lead.

The Royals held the Oles to four points in the final four minutes of the game, while tallying three-pointers from Jack Jenson and Matt Ambriz and two jumpers from Kingland. In the final 39 seconds of the contest, Bethel sank three free throws to secure the victory.

The game saw eight lead changes and eight ties in the game. Despite St. Olaf forcing 14 turnovers by the Royals while only committing four, Bethel sank 14 three-pointers and out-rebounded the Oles 44-27.

St. Olaf is back to action on Wednesday, Feb. 6, as they host St. Thomas in a MIAC contest for the second meeting this season, beginning at 7 p.m.