Carleton trailed 39-25 at the break but held the Gusties to 13 second-half points.
"We just had to settle down and take things one possession at a time," Carleton head coach Tammy Metcalf-Filzen said. "I think we panicked a lit bit in the first half and started to do some uncharacteristic things for us. We were much more solid in the second half. Katie Freeman and Linnea Engel did a phenomenal job today."
Linnea Engel scored 14 points and added five steals for the Knights (23-3). The point total pushed her over the 1,000-point plateau for her career. Angie Peterson paced Gustavus (21-6) with 14 points, breaking her own school single-season scoring record in the process as she finished the year with 472 points.
The Knights used a 13-2 spurt, capped by a Kate Krueger three pointer and two Beth Freeman free throws, to pull with five. The game stayed at 45-40 in favor of the Gusties for a full three minutes before Kelly Van Norman of Gustavus broke the seal to put her team ahead, 47-40. Carleton rattled off nine straight points, as Kristi Colbenson's three-pointer gave the Knights their first lead since midway through the first half.
Gustavus tied the game on a Bri Monahan fast-break basket with 2:21 left. But Beth Freeman scored inside and Megan Vig canned two free throws after a Carleton defensive stop. Peterson's twisting scoop shot resulted in a three-point play, pulling the Gusties with 53-52 with 45 seconds left, but Beth Freeman scored inside off a perfect feed from twin sister Katie Freeman and two Gustie 3-point attempts missed in the final 15 seconds.
"I was playing in the high post and she [Katie] was coming off a flare screen, so three of us were in the same place at once, so I split through and Katie looked for me right away," Beth Freeman said of her final basket. "It was pretty much a miscommunication on their part because there were too many people in one spot."
Gustavus used a 19-1 spurt over a six-minute span in the first half to take a 14-point first half lead. The Gusties shot 48 percent in the game's first 20 minutes and forced 12 Carleton turnovers, holding a 19-6 edge in points off turnovers in the first half. The Gusties would commit 15 second-half turnovers, however, and forced only six second-half Carleton turnovers.
"We went on a run in the first half, but I knew [Carleton] would come back," Gustavus Head Coach Mickey Haller said. "I figured it would come down to a two or three-point game. We lost composure a little bit, and their defense took us out of what we wanted to do."
Carleton now advances to the MIAC Playoffs title game for the fourth consecutive year. The Knights will host fourth-seeded Concordia-Moorhead, as the Cobbers upset top seed College of St. Benedict, 73-70. Game time on Saturday, Feb. 28 is 3 p.m. at West Gym.