HELENA, Mont. – Two ranked teams will take the court Wednesday at the PE Center when the sixth-ranked Carroll College men's basketball team hosts No. 17 Montana Western.
The Saints are 8-0 on the year and moved up from No. 9 to No. 6 in the NAIA Coaches' Poll released today.
The Bulldogs are 7-1 with their only loss coming at the hands of a talented Eastern Oregon team. UMW jumped into the top-25 at No. 17 after starting the year outside of the poll.
Both teams opened the conference season with road wins against Rocky Mountain in Billings last weekend.
"Montana Western is a very strong team that has won two tough road games in a row," head coach Carson Cunningham said. "They have experienced players and a lot of shooters. We need to be ready to play some ball."
Shooters they do have, Western had scored over 100 points in four if its eight games this season and four players average double figures, led by Brian Neal with 15.5 points per game. Dom Robinson is the reigning Frontier Player of the Week after scoring 27 points in the win over Rocky.
The Saints are led by Ryan imhoff with 18.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game
Zach Taylor,
Match Burnham and
Matt Wyman all average double figures for the Saints. The high-flying Carroll offense has been
"We aim to bring high energy and competitive fire to the PE Center on Wednesday night," Cunningham said. "We hope Carroll's great fans do the same. We love hearing them get loud."
The Saints and Bulldogs tip-off at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 94.9 FM ESPN Radio and on ESPNMontana.com. A live video stream will be available via the Carroll youtube channel and live stats will be available via Dakstats.
Fans are encouraged to wear ugly Christmas sweaters and prizes will be awarded to during both the men's and women's games. The first 500 fans will receive a Carroll College roll-a-banner presented by Helena Motors.
