PHOENIX – The Carroll College Women's basketball team exploded in the second half and four Saints scored in double figures to earn a 65-44 win over Spring Arbor (Mich.) Wednesday afternoon at the Arizona Christian Holiday Classic.
Cassidy Hashley scored a game-high 15 points and
Hannah Dean had 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for the double-double.
Sara Chalich scored a career-high 11 points and
Bailey Pasta added 11.
Carroll took an early 8-0 lead but the Cougars battled back to take a 21-20 lead with 2:56 left in the second quarter. Carroll went on a 6-0 run to go up 26-21 before SAU bounced back with a 6-0 run of their own to regain a 27-26 lead.
Sara Chalich hit a 3-pointer on the Saints next possession to regain a lead and Carroll went up 33-28 at the half.
With the slim lead at the break, head coach
Rachelle Sayers knew that the Saints needed to keep the pressure on in the second half.
"Our third quarter had been our nemesis a little bit," Sayers said. "This game we came out in the second half and really turned it on. I thought that it was a great start and it really began with Hannah and Cassie."
The Saints started the third on a 7-0 run building their lead to 40-28 with 5:48 left in the quarter. The Saints held onto a 47-36 lead at the end of the quarter.
Carroll answered every shot by the Cougars in the fourth quarter and built the lead to 65-44 with 2:01 to play, neither team scored in the final two minutes and the Saints earned the 21-point win. Carroll outscored Spring Arbor 32-16 in the second half.
The game was dominated inside by the Saints, Carroll outrebounded the cougars 45-20, including 15 offensive rebounds.
"We didn't have many offensive rebounds at half, I thought they did a great job on us in the first quarter with their physicality inside," Sayers said. "We talked about it at half and said you can't be boxed out. That was a really physical team. It was a physical game and we won the battle inside in the second half."
The Saints also outscored Spring Arbor 38-18 in the paint.
Spring Arbor's full court press gave the Saints fits, Carroll turned the ball over 17 times.
"We knew that this was going to be a hard one, I was worried about the press," Sayers said. "I thought we did a lot of good things, we turned it over 17 times, we had a few mistakes but most of the turnovers were a result of their pressure."
The Saints were 28-58 (48.3 percent) from the field while Spring Arbor was 13-27 (27.7 percent), including 4-25 (16 percent) in the second half.
Carroll racked up six blocks on the game, including four from Dean.
The Saints are now 10-3 on the season and have won three-straight games.
The Saints play Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) at 1 p.m. tomorrow in the final non-conference game of the season. The Eagles are 6-6 on the year.
The game will be broadcast on 94.9 FM ESPN Montana Radio. Live Video and Stats will be available via the Arizona Christian Stretch Internet Portal.
