HELENA, Mont. – Five Montana-Western players scored in double figures to lead the No. 11 Bulldogs to a 68-56 win over Carroll College at the PE Center in Helena Thursday night.
 
The Bulldogs never trailed and built a double-digit lead with just under ten minutes to play in the first half.
 
The Saints cut the deficit to six on a bucket by Nick Williams with 8:28 to play but Western built their advantage to 37-25 at the half.
 
The Bulldogs built a 39-56 lead with just over nine minutes to play in the game. The Saints were able to cut the Bulldog lead to ten but that is as close as they would come and the Bulldogs cruised to a 68-58 victory.
 
Carroll held Western well under their season average of 83.27 points per game but couldn't muster much offense.
 
"This team scores a lot of points and in the second half we did a pretty solid job of defending them and contesting shots," head Coach Carson Cunningham said. "Our Freshman have done a really good job this season and have given us some pretty big moments offensively but they kind of struggled today shooting."
 
Zayn Kirkendoll led Carroll with 13 points, tied for his season high. No other Saint scored in double figures. Frontier Conference leading scorer Zach Taylor scored a season low seven points. Taylor missed practice Tuesday and Wednesday because of an illness and is still not fully recovered.
 
"Zach Taylor was kind of a shell of himself today," Cunningham said. "We've got to find ways to put our other guys in a position to succeed because we are going to need some help offensively. These are young guys that we have asked to do a lot, and they have, but today we struggled a lot."
 
The Saints Fall to 14-8 overall and 3-5 in Frontier play. Western moves to 18-5 overall and 6-2 in conference.
 
Carroll hosts Westminster Saturday in the second game of the weekend. The Griffins are 10-10 on the season and 3-5 in Frontier play. Carroll won the first matchup 67-65 on a Taylor buzzer beater.
 
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the PE Center.