HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College men's basketball team survived an early onslaught form Northwest Indian College before cruising to a 121-86 home win behind double-digit scoring efforts from six different Carroll players.
 
The Saints struggled early to contain the Eagles three-point attack and NWIC was able to build a 15-9 lead before the Saints battled to tie the game at 15. The two teams traded leads before, trailing 37-32 lead with 7:30 left in the first half, the Saints went on a 24-4 run to close the half with a 56-41 lead. NWIC failed to make a field goal in that time.
 
The Saints continued to build the lead through the second half, outscoring the Eagles 65-45 in the second frame en route to the the 121-86 win.
 
Ryan Imhoff had 24 points to lead the Saints while Zach Taylor had 19 points and 12 assists. Oliver Carr also tallied 19 points, Jake Hollifield had 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting and Sam McMahon and Matt Wyman tallied 12 each.
 
Carroll dominated the smaller team on the boards 42-19 and outscored the Eagles in the paint 72-12. The Saints also tallied 37 assists on 44 made buckets.
 
The Saints were also a stellar 44-of-65 (67.7 percent) from the field. NWIC hit 17 three pointers on 40 attempts (42.5 percent).
 
"It was a fast paced game both teams seemed to be executing on offense well and some of their threes that they hit tonight where pretty impressive," head coach Carson Cunningham said. "Fortunately we were able to shoot really well from the field and we shared the apple really well with 37 assists. We stuck with trying to continue, to improve to be there to help each other and be quick to the flight of the ball and eventually it paid off."
 
The early success of the Eagle offense eventually waned as the Saints continued to execute their game plan.
 
"Some of their threes that they hit, I felt like we contested pretty well and then they would find the bottom of the net," Cunningham said.  "Give them credit for that. We felt like we could assert ourselves and they wanted to launch trey bombs and get a rhythm and they did. There were some stretches where they couldn't miss but we had good stretches of defense and we were fluent on offense. Taylor had 12 assists, Hollifield didn't miss a shot. McMahon, Ife (Kalejaiye) and Wyman gave us some really good minutes we'll learn from this and keep moving forward."
 
The Saints travel to California for exhibition games against the University of the Pacific Saturday and the University of CaliforniaMonday. It will be the second trip to the bay area in a little over a week for the Saints after playing at the Frank Dye Invitational hosted by Cal Maritime. The Saints split the weekend, defeating Menlo 80-67 before falling to Cal Maritime 79-76.