NORTHFIELD, Minn. – First year Paige Yagodinski hit five three-pointers on the way to scoring a career-high 17 points for the St. Olaf College women's basketball team in a 68-58 non-conference loss to Carthage College on the opening day of the Country Inn & Suites Holiday Classic on Wednesday at Skoglund Center.

Yagodinski was 5-for-11 from behind the arc while adding five steals, four rebounds, and three assists in the loss for St. Olaf (3-5), which led by as many as 10 points midway through the second quarter before Carthage (8-3) closed the half on a 13-1 run to take a two-point halftime lead. The Firebirds limited the Oles to 23 second-half points and never trailed after the break to pick up the 10-point win.

Lauren Knight scored a game-high 23 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, and handed out four assists for Carthage, which picked up its seventh win in its last eight games including an 11-point win over then-No. 5 Wheaton (Ill.) on Dec. 1. Kelsey Coshun had 11 points and five rebounds off the bench for the visitors.

Junior Rachel Kelly joined Yagodinski in double figures for the Oles with 14 points, four rebounds, four blocked shots, and two assists, while first year Sophia Kormann added seven points and eight rebounds. St. Olaf was 6-for-14 (42.9 percent) from behind the arc in the opening half before cooling off to 2-for-12 (16.7 percent) after halftime.

Carthage jumped out to a 10-2 lead over the first 4:18 of the game and led 17-7 with 2:56 remaining in the opening quarter. Trailing by 10, St. Olaf closed the quarter on a 13-2 run to take a 20-19 lead into the second. First year Sarah Tangen, Yagodinski, and sophomore Cayden Botten all hit three-pointers during the run and, with time winding down in the quarter, Lewis got a steal and beat the buzzer with a transition layup to put the Oles on top by a point.

In the second quarter, St. Olaf used a 9-0 run to open up its largest lead of the game at 34-24 with 5:44 remaining, as Yagodinski scored the final five points of the run. The Firebirds limited the Oles to just one point over the remainder of the quarter as part of a 13-1 run to take a 37-35 halftime lead.

The first half of the third quarter featured four ties before Carthage built a 54-45 lead with 15 seconds remaining. Inside the final 10 seconds of the quarter, Lewis went 1-of-2 at the free-throw line, but Kelly tipped the ball out to Yagodinski, who beat the buzzer with three-pointer to cut the visitors' lead to 54-49 headed to the fourth.

Kelly scored seven of St. Olaf's first nine points in the fourth quarter, including a layup off a pass from Tangen with 4:20 left to trim Carthage's lead to 60-58. That bucket accounted for the last points of the game for the Oles, however, as Coshun scored seven of the final eight points of the game for the Firebirds.

St. Olaf opens day two of the tournament against the University of Dubuque at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30. The Spartans were defeated by No. 23 UW-Oshkosh, 60-36, in Wednesday's second game.