BILLINGS -- Montana Western rang in the new year with a basketball road sweep over Rocky Mountain College on Monday night in Billings.
Shainy Mack delivered a career-high 22 points and Brynley Fitzgerald turned in a double-double to help the Bulldogs to a 79-66 women's win.
"We always want to emphasize getting it into the paint and out," Mack told MTN Sports after the win. "We've been wanting to shoot the 3, but we have to get it inside before we shoot cannons."
Fitzgerald recorded 19 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and two steals. The Bulldogs (4-1 overall, 2-1 Frontier Conference) delivered 20 assists on 28 made shots to pull away late. Rocky's men and women were playing their first games of the 2020-21 season.
The eye-popping stat was Montana Western scoring 29 points off of turnovers.
Shauna Bribiescas scored a game-high 23 points and hauled in seven rebounds for Rocky (0-1, 0-1).
"I thought our kids were really gritty, especially in the start of the third and start of the fourth quarters to kind of not let their foot off the gas, so to speak," said Bulldogs women's head coach Lindsay Woolley. "Wes (Keller's) kids shot the heck out of it and we were fortunate enough to come out with a win."
Western's men (2-1, 1-1) traded leads with Rocky in each half before cementing a 73-64 victory.
The Bulldogs shot 48 percent from the floor with Max Clark nearly turning in a triple-double (10 points, eight assists, eight rebounds). Jamal Stephenson led the team in scoring for a third straight game with 16 points to complement six rebounds. Clark and Carlos Allen iced it with clutch free throws down the stretch.
Rocky's Darius Henderson scored a game-high 20 points, adding four rebounds, three assists and three steals for Rocky (0-1, 0-1).
The four teams square off again Monday inside the Fortin Center with ladies first at 4 p.m. followed by the men at 6 p.m.
