HAVRE, Mont. – The 11th ranked Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team survived a late surge by No. 18 Carroll College en route to a 56-52 win Saturday at the Armory Gymnasium on the Campus of MSU-Northern.

The Saints (16-8, 7-4 Frontier Conference) trailed 17-4 with 10:50 left in the first half before cutting the lead to 28-25 at the break.

The Skylights (24-3, 9-2 FC) started the second half with another run to build a 38-29 lead with 14:46 remaining in the half, the Saints then battled back and took their first lead on a Katie Estey 3-pointer with 9:44 remaining.

Carroll built a 54-46 lead before Northern responded with a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 54-52 with 4:16 left in the game.

A 3-pointer by Bailey Snelling with 2:46 remaining extended the Carroll lead back to five (57-54) but the Skylights would hold the Saints scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Molly Kreycik gave Northern the 58-57 lead with two free throws with 29 seconds remaining. The Saints had one final possession but the smothering MSU-Northern defense prevented the Saints from getting a decent shot off.

"It was a tough, tough loss," head coach Rachelle Sayers said. "I thought our kids really battled. It came down to MSU northern making one more play than us. We made a huge run at them down 13 but we just couldn't put it away. They are a great team, and tonight I guess they were one play better than we were. But we still have a lot of basketball to play, and we will be ready to finish strong."

Cassidy Hashley led the Saints with 16 points and Bailey Snelling added 12. Natalee Faupel scored 18 to lead Northern and A'Jha Edwards had 13 points and 16 rebounds.

Northern hit three less field goals than Carroll but were 19-of-23 from the line compared to just 7-of-13 for the Saints.

The loss broke an eight-game road winning streak for the Saints.

The Saints close out the regular season with three road games, starting with Montana Tech Thursday at 5:30 p.m.  at the PE Center.

The Saints remain in a tie for third place in the conference behind Westminster and MSU-Northern after UGF fell to Rocky Mountain Saturday.