HELENA, Mont. – Just 4.9 seconds separated the No. 16 Carroll College Fighting Saints from their first Frontier Conference loss after All-American Dexter Williams Jr. broke a 61-61 tie with a layup to put Montana Western in the lead.
Then came the question does, head coach
Carson Cunningham call a timeout and set up a play or trust his players and live with what happens.
He decided to do the later and
Ryan Imhoff Inbounded the ball
Zach Taylor who drove to the middle of the court and launched a 25-footer that banked in to give Carroll the 64-63 win, the first over the Bulldogs for a Cunningham coached team.
"When Ryan immediately got the ball into Zach I decided to let it play out," Cunningham said. "In those situations, when you have the ball in the hands of an All-American caliber player, I just want to let them play basketball. He went down, shot confidently and it was online. I saw it was long and thought 'that might bank,' and it banked in. We'll take them any way we can get them."
The winner came after a second-half which saw the Saints start on a 14-4 run to overcome an eight-point, 36-28 halftime deficit to take a 40-38 lead o a three-pointer from Taylor with 15:04 in the game.
The was the one of six lead changes in the second half but neither team could gain a sizable advantage.
The Bulldogs built a seven-point, 52-45 lead with 8:18 to play before the Saints began chipping away. Carroll couldn't get over the hump and the Bulldogs held a two-point 61-59 advantage with 54 seconds to play when Imhoff was called for an offensive foul, turning the ball over to UMW.
Needing a big play to get the ball back, Carroll freshman
Matt Wyman forced a turnover at mid-court to give the Saints the ball with 32 ticks left on the clock.
Oliver Carr was fouled with 17 seconds left. He hit both free throws to tie the game at 61.
The Bulldogs drove the length of the court and a defensive miscue gave Williams the wide-open layup to give the Bulldogs the lead but the 4.9 seconds on the clock was enough for Taylor.
"When they scored I looked up at the clock and there was five seconds, that's a lot of time to get down the court," Taylor said. "I went and got as far up the court as possible and let it fly. It feels pretty good right now."
Taylor's heroics gave the Saints the win but Cunningham knows that without clutch plays from other Saints, Taylor doesn't have the opportunity to hit the winning shot.
"If you are going to battle in this conference for some championships you are going to have to win some bigtime grinder games," Cunningham said. "Ollie Carr hits those two free throws late, Matt Wymore get's that huge steal at half court, Imhoff gets the ball out quick to Zach, there are so many things that go into a win like this."
Taylor led the Saints with 14 points and four assists, Carr added 12 points. Imhoff tallied nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Williams tallied a game-high 19 points and a team-high 10 rebounds to lead to Bulldogs, Demitrius Balark also added 12 points for UMW.
The Saints are now 7-2 on the season and started the Frontier schedule 3-0 for the first time since 2008-09. Carroll doesn't play another Frontier game until Jan. 8, but play four non-conference games in the interim.
The first match up is against NCAA DII MSU Billings on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at the PE Center.
