(Editors Note: Carroll College press release)
GREAT FALLS — The No. 11 Carroll College women's basketball team picked up another Frontier Conference win on Saturday, beating Providence 61-49 in Great Falls.
The Fighting Saints (19-5, 9-1) were able to walk out of the McLaughlin Center with a win over Providence (13-10, 3-7) in what would be their lone regular season trip to Great Falls on the year.
Carroll would play a tremendous defensive first quarter, something that Saints fans have grown accustomed to seeing. The Saints grew a first quarter lead as large as 11 points, but a last second three pointer from Providence's Maddy Dixon would cut the Carroll lead to eight points after one.
The Argonauts would close the gap even further in the second quarter, at one point narrowing the Carroll lead to just three points. Jamie Pickens would put a stop to the bleeding for the Saints, however, scoring six of her game-high 22 points in the latter stages of the first half. Carroll would lead 32-26 heading into the half.
Again, defense would be the story of the third quarter. Carroll held Providence to just seven total points in the third, and would expand their lead to 11 heading into the final quarter of play.
The Saints were able to negate any sort of a Providence run in the fourth, and walked out of the week with a 61-49 win, and the best record in the Frontier Conference.
Pickens posted her second double-double of the week. This one featuring a game-high 22 points, and a career-high 16 rebounds for the Saints forward.
Genesis Wilkinson and Kamden Hilborn each scored 12 points, and combined for an additional 11 rebounds for the Saints.
Reed Hazard was the best player on the court for the Argos, finishing with 20 points in 36 minutes of play.
Carroll will have several days of preparation before heading on a trip to Havre on Thursday to face off with MSU-Northern for the third and final time this season.
For the second straight game and fourth time this season, the University of Providence men went to overtime and improved to 3-1 in those games with an 81-80 win over Carroll College Saturday at Great Falls in Frontier Conference action.
Providence took an early 7-2 lead less than four minutes into the game only to see the Saints turn a 10-9 lead into a double-digit advantage with a 10-0 run to make the score 19-9 with just under 12 minutes left in the first half. Both teams played back and forth with Carroll taking a six-point lead into the locker room.
An Andrew Cook jumper made it a 10-point Saints lead with 19:08 left in regulation before the Argos went on an 18-3 run over the next six minutes to give Providence a five-point lead with 13:37 to play. From that point on, there were five ties and three lead changes before Eric Milner hit two free throws with three seconds left to send the game to the extra session.
In overtime, the Saints went up by six with just under two minutes remaining but a layup by Marcus Stephens, a Milner three and four straight points from Davien Harris-Williams lifted the Argos to the victory. Providence closed the game on a 9-1 run over the final 1:48.
Carroll (11-10, 5-5) shot 43.6% (34-78) from the field, 4 of 14 from three-point range and 8 of 11 at the free throw line. Brendan Temple scored 29 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, Cook hit for 25 and Jonny Hillman added 10. The Saints had 46 rebounds and outscored the Argos 48-32 in the paint.
Providence finished 29 of 70 (41.4%) from the floor, 8 of 30 from three, and 15 of 18 at the line. Harris-Williams scored a game-high 33 points with seven rebounds, Stephens added 15 points and seven rebounds, Milner scored 13 with Jake Olsen adding eight points and 13 rebounds with four blocks.
The Argos move back into a tie atop the Frontier standings with Montana Tech with 7-3 league marks after the No. 12 Orediggers were upset at MSU-Northern 67-60 Saturday. Tech owns the tiebreaker over the Argos by virtue of two wins this season (for tournament seeding).
Providence, 13-10 overall will play at Rocky Thursday, Northern Saturday next week.
