HELENA, Mont. – Carroll College women's basketball looks to continue their perfect conference road record when they take on Rocky Mountain Saturday at 5:30 p.m. to close out the first half of the Frontier Conference slate.
The 19th ranked Saints (13-6, 4-2 FC) are coming off of a road sweep of No. 18 Lewis-Clark and Montana Tech.
Rocky (9-8, 2-4 FC), the Saints' travel partner, defeated Montana Tech but fell to Lewis-Clark 67-59. The Bears are 1-4 in their last five games but Carroll head coach
Rachelle Sayers knows that they are on the upswing.
"Rocky is a much improved team from last year," Sayers said. "They get to the free-throw line as well as anyone in the league and they are very good offensive rebounders. Their post players post up as hard as anyone we have played this year and they have a great guard in junior college Transfer, Whitney Mitchell. We will have our hands full on Saturday night."
The Saints are in a strange spot. Carroll is 4-0 on the road in Frontier play but 0-2 at home. The team is playing with confidence however and they would like to close out the first half of the conference season with a win Saturday.
Carroll is in a three-way tie for third place with Lewis-Clark and Great Falls and they are among a pack of five teams that are within a game of the Frontier lead.
MSU-Northern and Wesminster are tied for first with a 5-1 record in conference. Westminster's lone loss came at the hands of the Saints in Salt Lake City.
"The good news is we have started out 5 of 7 games on the road and this is the last one in this stretch," Sayer said. "I think our kids are playing with a lot of confidence right now and we are still getting better, so that is very encouraging as a coach to see."
Mitchell averages 16.4 points per game on a team that scores just over 70. The Bears are strong on the defensive end, they give up just 58.7 points per game.
Carroll scores 62.1 points per game and gives up just 56.2.
Bailey Snelling (12.7),
Kalee Junkermier (12) and
Cassidy Hashley (11.7) all average double-figure for Carroll.
The Saints own wins over three top 15 teams, all of those coming away from the PE Center, but the Saints will need to close out the season with a strong performance against some very good competition.
"This team works very hard and is extremely focused," Sayers said. "The conference is a tough as it has ever been. To have five teams in the top 25 in the Nation is pretty amazing."
