(Editor's note: Carroll College media release)
| No. 18 Carroll College vs. Montana State-Northern Women's Basketball |
HELENA -- Those Carroll College Fighting Saints are getting awfully used to cutting down nets.
The No. 18-ranked Saints beat down Montana State-Northern 65-39 on Friday evening to secure at least a share of the Frontier Conference regular season championship and send out their seniors with a win on Senior Night.
The Saints led 23-17 at halftime, before exploding for 28 points in the third quarter.
“We obviously were a little sluggish and a little tired and a little nervous from Senior Night,” Saints coach Rachelle Sayers said of the Saints’ start. “The kids knew what was at stake. Northern came in with a great plan. The zones caused us some problems.”
Carroll opened the third quarter on a 28-2 run, dominating the Skylights in the period. Northern managed only five points in the period.
“We finally got some shots to drop and then everybody got them to drop,” Sayers said. “That definitely gets you going a little bit. I think us going to the zone ourselves, we were able to create some turnovers and get some runouts and disrupt them a lot.”
Carroll kept Northern buried after that.
Sienna Swannack had a game-high 21 points and also was the only player in double figures for either side. She went perfect from beyond the arc at 5-for-5 and also pulled down eight rebounds.
Nine Saints scored in the game.
The Saints gave their seniors Taylor Salonen and Emerald Toth one more regular-season win in the PE Center, though both will get at least one more game in Helena next week during the conference tournament.
“It’s really special,” Sayers said. “Both of those two have different stories and different paths that brought them to Carroll. I’m really proud of what they’ve given to this program.”
Carroll finished the regular season with a 21-5 record, including a 13-5 mark in conference.
If Lewis-Clark State College defeats Montana Western on Saturday, the Saints could be outright champions and hold the No. 1 seed in the Frontier tournament.
| No. 17 Carroll College vs. Montana State-Northern Men's Basketball |
HELENA -- After locking up at least a share of second-place in the Frontier Conference, the No. 17 Carroll College Fighting Saints locked up second place with a win over the Montana State Northern Lights on senior night, 61-57.
Though, the win did not come easily.
The Fighting Saints took a 7-0 lead early in the first, until the Lights came alive after a timeout. Northern rattled off a 21-5 run to take a 21-12 lead with a little under nine minutes left to go in the first half, and from there the Lights didn't take their foot off the gas and led 33-24 after the first 20 minutes of play.
In the second half, the Lights remained in control through most of it, with Carroll knotting up the score at 40-40 with 11:33 left in the game, only to see the Lights slip away yet again.
Dane Warp refused to go down with out a fight in the final regular season game of his career.
The lone senior put up 13 of his 20 points on the night in the second half and across the game added 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
With a bit over five minutes left in the game, the Saints knotted it for the final time at 50-50, and Dennis Flowers III added a free throw to take a lead the Saints would not reinquish, en route to a win.
Adam Huse led the Lights with 20 points and 2 rebounds.
The win ends the Saints 2019-20 regular season at 13-5 in conference play, and 22-8 overall, good enough to secure a second-place bid headed into the Frontier Conference tournament. The Lights fall to 8-9 in conference play with the loss, 18-10 overall, and will have one last shot to end the season with a .500 record when they face the No. 10 University of Providence in Great Falls on Feb. 29 at 7:30 p.m.
