HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College women's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 53-46 win over Rocky Mountain Saturday at the PE Center.
 
The win, combined with the MSU-Northern's loss against Montana Tech, gave the Saints the third seed in the Frontier Conference playoffs.
 
The Saints opened the game with a six-point lead and never trailed for the duration. Rocky Mountain cut the lead to 14-11 at the end over the first quarter and opened the second quarter with a bucket to cut the score to 14-13 but that is as close as the Bears would get. Carroll rattled off 11-straight points on three-pointers from Bailey Pasta, Brittney Johnson and Sara Chalich to build a 25-13 lead.
 
Rocky cut it to 27-18 at the half but the Saints built it to 37-26 in the third quarter.
 
The Bears went on a 9-2 run to cut the Carroll lead to 49-46 with 52 seconds left in the game but Katie Estey hit a long two on the next Saints possession to bury the dagger with 14 seconds left and the Saints closed out the seven-point win.
 
Estey led the Saints with 16 points on her senior night. Cassidy Hashley tallied a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
 
The Saints have been dominant on the defensive end where they have held their last six opponents to 55 points or less and opponents have averaged 51 points in that stretch.
 
Carroll was 20 of 51 (39.2 percent) from the field and 7 of 16 from the three-point line the best performance is several weeks.
 
"I think that we have good shooters, I think it was more about them being ready to shoot," head coach Rachelle Sayers said. "We've had such an emphasis of getting the ball in the paint, because we know that is where our strength is, that they aren't always ready to shoot. So many people are doubling us inside and sagging off so we have got to be ready to shoot. Our job is to keep them ready, to keep them confident and their job is to knock them down and I thought they did a great job tonight."
 
The Saints held Rocky to 18 of 48 (37.5 percent) from the field and 3 of 10 (30 percent) from the three-point line.
 
Carroll outrebounded Rocky 33-22 but had 17 turnovers to 12 for Rocky Mountain.
 
The Saints host Montana Tech Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the Frontier Conference tournament. The Saints fell to Tech in the quarterfinals of last year's tournament but the Saints are 3-0 against the Diggers this season.
 
"We have always had our trouble with tech but this year we really defended them well," Sayers said. "Regardless of who we play we are excited to keep going."
 
The Saints and Diggers tip off at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the PE Center.