NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Senior Connor Martin and sophomore Kobe Kirk combined for 45 points to lead the St. Olaf College men's basketball team to a 66-58 win over the College of St. Scholastica on Monday night at Skoglund Center.

Martin scored a season-high 25 points and Kirk added 20 for St. Olaf (7-8, 6-4 MIAC), which ran its winning streak to three games by defeating St. Scholastica (2-13, 1-9 MIAC) for the fourth time in five tries since the Saints joined the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). The three-game winning streak is the longest of the season for the Oles.

Martin shot 11-for-16 from the field and 3-for-4 at the free-throw line and handed out a game-high four assists in his fifth 20-point performance of the season. The 25-point performance marked the second-highest single-game total of Martin's career, trailing only a 28-point outing in a 76-73 win at Gustavus Adolphus College in the quarterfinals of the MIAC Playoffs on Feb. 23, 2022, and vaulted Martin into the top 20 on St. Olaf's all-time scoring list with 1,052 points for his career. Kirk surpassed the 20-point mark for the eighth time this season by going 7-for-14 from the field and 5-for-5 at the free-throw line while also pulling down a team-high six rebounds.

Six other Oles scored in the win but none had more than six points. St. Olaf turned 12 offensive rebounds into 14 second-chance points to overcome a 35-11 advantage in bench scoring for St. Scholastica. Koy Nelson, who had not scored in the last three games and entered the game averaging 5.7 points per game for the season, exploded for 24 points in 24 minutes off the bench for the Saints, connecting on 9-of-13 shots from the field for the visitors.

St. Olaf surged out to a 13-2 lead over the first 6:08 of the game before Nelson checked in, as Martin, Kirk, and senior Caleb Greer combined for all 13 points early on. Nelson scored 15 points in his first nine-plus minutes on court and gave the Saints their first lead of the game at 24-23 with 4:30 to go in the half.

Nelson was 7-for-10 from the field while scoring 17 of the visitors' 32 first-half points, as St. Scholastica took a 32-31 lead into the break. The Saints shot 14-for-25 (56.0 percent) from the field in the first half compared to just 10-for-31 (32.3 percent) for the Oles, who got 11 points from Kirk in the opening 20 minutes.

Martin took over in the second half offensive for St. Olaf, scoring 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting after the break. Neither team led by more than three in the second half until the Oles went on a 9-0 run to grab a 57-50 lead with 6:27 remaining. St. Scholastica cut its deficit to just three at 59-56 with 3:57 to play, but St. Olaf responded with a layup by Martin and a three-point play by Kirk to extend its lead to eight. The Oles held the Saints to just eight points on 3-for-12 shooting from the floor over the final nine-plus minutes.

St. Olaf faces Macalester College at Skoglund Center on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.