VALLEJO, Calif. – A late comeback bid fell just short and Carroll College fell to Cal Maritime 79-76 Saturday evening in the final game of the Frank Dye invitational on the CSUM Campus.
 
The Saints and Keelhaulers battled back and forth in the first half but the home team gained a little separation in the final minutes to go into the break with a 50-44 lead.
 
Carroll started the second half with a 6-0 run to tie the game but both defenses improved after the break.
 
With the game tied at 52, at the 17:52 mark, the Saints would go scoreless until the 13:23 mark and allow CSUM to build a 60-52 lead.
 
Carroll would cut it to 67-64 with 8:03 left in the game but another scoreless drought would prove too much to overcome.
 
The Keelhaulers would build a 75-64 lead before the Saints answered with a free throw from Ryan Imhoff with 2:31 left in the game.
 
The Saints closed the game with a 12-4 run but couldn't climb the mountain and fell in the final seconds.
 
"We knew this true home game would be tough, but we made it harder by not being sharp defensively in the first half," head coach Carson Cunningham said. "This is a game that we must improve from. We just weren't good enough tonight against a team that got exceptionally hot from three. From me on down, we've got to get better. Bottom line, it's frustrating to know that we let this one get away. We need to take that emotion and turn it into positive energy to grow."
 
Zach Taylor scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Saints, Oliver Carr added 17 and Lorel Johnson and Match Burnham each had 11 points for the Saints.
 
Ryan Imhoff had 10 rebounds to lead the Saints.
 
Carroll was 30-of-55 (54.5 percent) from the field. CSUM was 31-of-64 (48.4 percent) from the field but better from the three-point line shooting 11-of-20 (55 percent) from distance.
 
Carroll returns home Wednesday for a game against Northwest Indian College at 7 p.m. at the PE Center.