HELENA, Mont. – The 13th-ranked Carroll College women's basketball team fell to No. 12 Lewis-Clark State 55-49 Friday evening at the PE Center.
 
The Warriors took a 5-4 lead with 6:58 to play in the first quarter which the Saints would never regain.
 
LCSC carried a 16-12 advantage into the second quarter after a three-pointer at the buzzer. The Warriors built a nine-point lead in the final minute but Sara Chalich buried a 3-pointer with 30 left in the half to cut the lead to 30-24.
 
The Saints chipped away to cut the Warrior lead to 38-37 late in the third quarter and ended the frame trailing 40-37. A three-point Baylee Watson with 5:26 remaining in the game tied the game at 42 but the Warriors would close the game on a 14-7 run to earn the seven-point win.
 
The Saints shot well from the field, shooting 18 of 39 (46.2 percent), but uncharacteristically struggled from the free throw line hitting just 10 of 18 (55.6 percent).  
 
Carroll had a sizable advantage on the boards, outrebounding the Warriors 29-19 but they turned the ball over 18 times.
 
The Saints held Lewis-Clark to their second-lowest point total of the season but the turnovers and poor free throw shooting didn't help the Saints capitalize.
 
"We made some bad decisions offensively, but we had our chances," head coach Rachelle Sayers said. "I thought we battled. We missed too many free-throws and turned the ball over too much."
 
Cassidy Hashley led the Saints with 12 point and 13 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Michaela Dowdy came off the bench to score 11.
 
For the second-consecutive game, the Saints were without starting point guard Katie Estey. Carroll overcame her absence against last-place Montana Tech but against the top team in the Frontier it was too tall of a task.
 
"When you're missing your leading scorer, your senior captain and primary ball handler, it affects everything you do," Sayers said. "It's just tough. We're playing a great team at full strength that was sitting and resting last night when we were playing and it was tough."
 
Carroll falls to 9-5 in Frontier Conference play, tied in the loss column with the University of Great Falls and MSU-Northern. The Saints meet the two teams next week on the road in back-to-back games Friday (MSU-Northern) and Saturday (UGF).