HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll women's basketball shrugged off bad shooting performances from the previous two games to jump out to a 15-2 lead en route to a 68-40 win over Montana Western Wednesday at the PE Center to move to 12-1 on the season and 2-1 in Frontier play.
Katie Estey hit on her first four three-point attempts to set help set the tone of the game on her way to scoring a game-high 17 points,
Jordan Johnston added 12 points and
Cassidy Hashley scored 10 points and snagged seven rebounds.
The Saints outscored the Bulldogs in every quarter with a 17-7 advantage in the first frame being the largest.
Carroll again dominated the boards, outrebounding UM Western 40-22. The Saints got off the schneid shooting the ball in a big way. Carroll was 19 of 66 (28.8 percent) from the field in the 68-63 win over Montana Tech and 14 of 56 (25 percent) from the field in the loss to Lewis-Clark State.
Wednesday, the Saints were 26 of 62 (41.9 percent) from the field, above their season average of 38.5 percent.
The Saints' strong performance on the offensive side went hand in hand with a dominant defensive performance. The Bulldog's 40 points was the lowest total for a Carroll NAIA opponent.
Aniese Palmore was the only Bulldog to reach double-figures, she tallied a team 10 points. Montana transfer and UMW leading scorer Molly Klinker was held to seven points, less than half of her season average.
"People talk about our posts, but I think they forget how good they are defensively," head coach
Rachelle Sayers said. "Cassie was excited about the challenge to guard (Klinker), and I think she did an excellent job."
Offensively, the Saints keyed on Estey, whose 17 points all came in the first half.
"We go as Katie goes," Sayers said. "She came out real aggressive. We talked to her about being aggressive off the ball screen and looking to score."
The Saints now wait nearly a month before their next Frontier Conference game on Jan. 8th against MSU-Northern. In the meantime, the Saints play two exhibition games against Montana State (Dec. 21) and the University of Idaho (Dec. 28).
