BILLINGS, Mont. – The No. 9 Carroll College men's basketball team got off to a blistering start and never looked back en route to a 98-84 win over Rocky Mountain in the Frontier Conference opener at the Fortin Center in Billings.
 
Carroll scored the first seven points and built 12-2 lead, just over 3:30 into the game. The Bears cut the lead to 23-14 with 11:20 remaining before Carroll went on 12-0 run to take complete control of game.
 
The Saints were shooting over 70 percent in the first half but cooled down before the break. Despite the late first half struggles, the Saints were 17-29 (58.6 percent) from the field in the first half. The Saints led 48-31 at the half.
 
The second half was an offensive onslaught by both teams. The Carroll lead hovered around 20 points until, with 8:20 to play with the Saints leading 76-55, Rocky scored seven-straight points to cut the lead to 76-62 with 7:43 remaining.
 
The Bears would cut the lead to 92-82 with 1:01 left on the clock but that is as close as they would come, the Saints would hit eight consecutive free throws in the final 1:07 to close out the 14-point win.
 
Four Saints scored in double figures led by Ryan Imhoff with 21 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Match Burnham and Zach Taylor had 18 each, including 12 each in the first half. Matt Wyman scored 15 points for the Saints. Five other Carroll players scored points in the win.
 
Riley Bradshaw scored 25 points to lead Rocky Mountain, the University of Montana transfer was 5-7 from three-point line.  Four other Bears scored in double figures.
 
The Saints were 31-57 (54.4 percent) from the field while the Bears were 33-64 (51.6 percent). Carroll held a slight advantage in rebounding 33-30. Carroll was 21-26 (86.7 percent) from the line while RMC came in at 10-15 (66.7 percent).
 
Carroll improves to 8-0 on the year while Rocky falls to 4-4.
 
The Saints next play the Frontier Conference home opener against Montana Western at the PE Center on Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m.