HELENA, Mont. – The 14th-ranked Carroll College men's basketball team opened the game with a 12-0 and survived multiple comeback attempts from MSU-Northern to win 83-77 and improved to 10-0 at home on the season.
The Saints jumped out to an early 12-0 lead with 16:05 remaining in the first half, highlighted by breakaway dunks by
Ryan Imhoff and
Jake Hollifield. The Lights finally got their feet under them and responded with a 9-2 run to cut the score to 14-9 with 13:19 left in the first half.
Leading 20-16, Carroll went on a 15-4 run that increased their lead to 35-20 with 6:43 in the first half. After trading baskets at the end of the half, the Saints took a 50-36 lead into the break.
Carroll opened the second half on an 8-2 run to extend their lead to 56-38 with 17:10 remaining before the Lights battled back with a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 62-54 with 9:51 left in the game.
Northern slowly chipped the lead down to 77-73 with only 22 seconds remaining but the Saints would go 10-12 from the free throw line in final two minutes to hold on for the six-point win.
Forward
Match Burnham scored a career high 24 points with five rebounds and two blocks. Imhoff scored 12 points and tallied six rebounds. Point guard
Zach Taylor scored eight points and led the game with seven assists.
"We got a really nice rhythm going as far as sharing the ball and knowing what we are looking for." said head coach
Carson Cunningham. "Our freshman are playing at a high intellectual level, it's really impressive."
The Saints' offense scored efficiently going 19-25 (76 percent) in the first half and 29-49 (59.2 percent) overall from the field. The second best free throw percentage team in country, Carroll shot 20-24 (83.3 percent) from the line.
Carroll improves to 16-5 on the season and remains tied for first place in Frontier Conference at 9-2. The next game for the Saints is Thursday at Rocky Mountain.
The Bears are 14-8 overall and 5-5 in conference play and are coming off a pair of wins against No. 3 LCSC and Montana Tech at home.
