NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Senior Ella Skrien had 18 points and nine rebounds for the St. Olaf College women's basketball team but Carleton College rallied in the final five minutes to defeat the Oles, 65-62, on Saturday afternoon at West Gym.

Skrien was 6-for-8 from the field, including 5-for-6 from behind the arc, on the way to her second-high point total of the season, while the nine rebounds tied her career high for St. Olaf (8-15, 5-13 MIAC). Carleton (10-13, 7-11 MIAC) kept its playoff hopes alive by rallying from five points down with 4:28 remaining to salvage a split of the regular-season meetings between the crosstown rivals.

Senior Britta Koenen returned from injury to join Skrien in double figures with 10 points including a pair of three-pointers. St. Olaf made 11 three-pointers in the loss, reaching double-digit makes from behind the arc for the third time this season, all in the last six games.

A layup by first year Rachel Kelly and a three-pointer by first year Sophie Olmen broke a 54-54 tie to give St. Olaf a five-point lead with 4:28 remaining in the game. Carleton scored the next 11 points, including the go-ahead three-point play from Jill Yanai with 1:19 remaining, to come out on top despite a last-second three-pointer by junior Keegan Mulvihill.

Two early three-pointers started an eight-point opening quarter for Skrien as the Oles took an 18-13 lead after 10 minutes. St. Olaf broke an 11-11 tie with a 7-2 run that ended with a buzzer-beating layup by Olmen to take a five-point lead into the second.

Koenen hit consecutive three-pointers in the first minute of the second quarter and Skrien followed with another to give St. Olaf its largest lead of the game at 27-15. After Carleton got within four by scoring the next eight points, St. Olaf got it back to 10, only for the Knights to close the half on a 9-1 run to cut the Oles' lead to 35-33 at the half.

St. Olaf scored 10 of the first 13 points of the third quarter to open up a 45-36 lead with 5:35 to go but a 7-0 run later in the quarter helped Carleton get within three, 48-45, entering the fourth. In the fourth, Skrien connected on back-to-back three-pointers to break a pair of ties, but Anna Hughes answered each time for Carleton to tie it back up.

Hughes' second three-pointer of the quarter tied the game at 54-54 with 6:44 remaining before buckets from Kelly and Olmen gave St. Olaf a 59-54 lead. After Olmen's three-pointer, the Knights held the Oles scoreless for nearly four-and-a-half minutes before Mulvihill's last-second three-pointer. Yanai's three-poitn play with 1:19 left gave Carleton its first lead since 11-10 in the final four minutes of the first quarter.

Yanai led five Knights in double figures with 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Katie Chavez also had 15 points. Samantha Cooke (13), Aiana Whitfield (11) and Hughes (10) joined Yanai and Chavez in double figures, as the five combined for 64 of Carleton's 65 points.

St. Olaf travels to nationally-ranked St. Thomas on Wednesday, Feb. 19 for a 7 p.m. tip-off before returning home for Senior Day on Saturday, Feb. 22 against Macalester at 3 p.m.