BUTTE, Mont. – The Carroll College men's basketball team jumped out to a 20-2 lead and survived a late comeback bid en route to an 89-77 road win over Montana Tech Thursday at Kelvin Sampson Court in Butte.
Match Burnham scored a game-high 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting, followed closely by Zach Taylor who was 7 of 9 from the field for 19 points and Matt Wyman who as a perfect 6 of 6 for 18 points. Ryan Imhoff tallied a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Oliver Carro also tallied 10 points for the Saints.
 
The early run gave Carroll a comfortable lead of 46-28 at the half. The Saints extended it to 68-44 with 11 minutes left in the game before a 14-0 run by the Diggers cut the lead to 68-58.
 
Montana Tech was able to cut the lead to 74-67 with 4:39 left before an Imhoff 3-pointer built the lead back to double digits. That would be as close as Tech would come as the Saints closed the game with strong free throw shooting to earn the 89-77 win.
 
The Saints were 31 of 49 (63.3 percent) from the field, including 7 of 10 from three-point range. Carroll was especially good in the first half when they shot 20 of 26 (76.92 percent) from the field to build the big lead.
 
Carroll held the Diggers to 26 of 60 (43.3 percent) from the field, including just 10 of 39 (34.48 percent) in the first half.
 
Jalen Coates led the Diggers with 20 points, Lukas Vining scored 15 points and Paul Engstrom scored 12 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
 
"It's nice to come out of Butte with a win," head coach Carson Cunningham said. "That's a tough place. Our guys were locked in and moving the rock like it was hot. Tech deserves credit for battling back. Fortunately, we were able to close the matter out. Now it's on to Lewis-Clark State. They're shooters get so hot the climatologists are worried. It'll be a mighty challenge."
 
The Saints play No. 3 Lewis-Clark Saturday in Lewiston. Carroll handed the Warriors their lone setback of the season in a 96-70 rout in early December. LCSC has won nine-straight since the loss in Helena.
 
The teams are slated to take the court at 8:30 p.m. MDT.