HELENA – Hannah Dean tallied a double-double and Christine Denny made the biggest shot of the ball game as No. 24 Carroll College upset No. 7 Lewis-Clark State 73-67 on Saturday. The win moved the Fighting Saints to 3-1 in Frontier Conference play.
Dean had a game-high 17 points and collected 10 rebounds, four on the offensive end, to lead the Saints’ attack. The former Gardiner standout hit eight of 14 field goals and had two steals and a block in the win.
But it was Denny, the freshman from Fairfield, Wash., who found herself in the right place at the right time for Carroll. After Michaela Dowdy made a tough bucket underneath to give the Saints a 69-66 advantage, Denny bolted on a backdoor cut from the Carroll bench to the east basket inside the P.E. Center and point guard Bailey Pasta threw a sensational pass between defenders, resulting in a Denny layup that essentially sealed the win for the Saints.
Denny had 13 points, six rebounds, six assists and a steal in the win. Fellow frosh Dani Wagner, inserted into the starting lineup, had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists for Rachelle Sayers’ club.
It was Lewis-Clark State that pounced early Saturday evening. The Warriors, which fell at Rocky Mountain College on Thursday, were hungry entering the league contest, and dialed up a 22-15 advantage after the first quarter.
The lead ballooned to 11 midway through the second, but the Saints trimmed it to three after a trio of 3-pointers from Brittney Johnson. Dean’s field goal with 49 seconds left in the half brought Carroll to within two, but all-conference forward Brittany Tackett hit a free throw for a 38-35 halftime lead.
Carroll stole the momentum in the third period behind 3-pointers from Pasta and Wagner, building a five-point advantage of their own. But LCSC ended the quarter on a 10-2 run and led 58-55 with one period to play.
The teams traded blows in the final stanza, with Hailey Turner’s field goal putting the Warriors up by four, but Johnson drilled another triple and Oona Harrington added a field goal to give the Saints the lead, before Dowdy’s bucket and Pasta’s pass to Denny wrapped up the win.
Carroll (11-4, 3-1) has now won four straight games heading into Tuesday’s Frontier Conference showdown with Rocky Mountain College. The Battlin’ Bears knocked off LCSC on Thursday and upset Montana Western Saturday night.
