BILLINGS, Montana – Match Burnham scored a career-high 37 points and was a perfect 19 of 19 from the free throw line, a school record, to lead the 13th-ranked Carroll College men's basketball team to an 88-80 road win over Rocky Mountain Thursday in Billings.
 
The Saints jumped out early, starting the game on an 11-3 run and led 23-8 with 10:00 left in the first half before the Bears found a little bit of a grove offensively.
 
Chad Kananan hit 3-points on three-straight possessions to cut the Carroll lead to 2517 with 8:37 left to go in the half. The run was good for nine of his impressive 33 points on the night, including nine made three pointers.
 
The Saints held on to a 47-37 lead at the break.
 
The Bears went on a five-point run to start the second half to cut the lead to 47-42 but Carroll rattled off 10-straight as part of a 17-4 run that built the Carroll lead to 64-46 with 14:36 left in the game.
 
The Bears began to chip away as the Saints cooled from the field. Rocky cut the lead to 83-80 with 1:22 left in the game but the Saints closed on a 5-0 run to earn the win. The last points of the game, a pair of free throws from Burnham, gave him the school record for free throws made in a game.
 
The previous record of 18 was held by Bill Pilgeram against Western in 1990 and Drew Peterson against MSU-Northern in 1994.
 
"I definitely feel like coach put me in a good situation," Burnham said. "We worked a lot with coach this week and my teammates had a lot of trust and confidence in me. I have a saying when I step up to the line 'all day, all day' so I don't think about it. It comes through practice and it just worked out tonight."
 
Burnham has been one of the Saints' biggest scorers since the overtime loss to Montana Western. This is the third time in the last four games that he has set a career-high in points.
 
"I feel a lot more confidence. I know all of the plays and I feel a lot more comfortable in the offense," Burnham said. "My teammates have also put a lot of confidence in me and my coaches are putting me in a position to succeed. There is a lot of credit to those guys for putting me in this spot."
 
With tonight's win, the Saints keep pace with Lewis-Clark State, who easily defeated UGF in Lewiston. The Saints are 10-2 in Frontier play while the Warriors are 9-2 and host MSU-Northern Saturday.
 
One of LCSC's lone losses came at the hands of the Bears in Billings just last week.
 
"It is a great win for us," Burnham said. "We are excited to get that win against a tough team in a tough place to play. We have a couple more challenging games next week and we want to close out  the season strong."
 
Head coach Carson Cunningham believes that Burnham's big game was a product of the Saints strong play in all aspects of the game.
 
"It was rather fun to watch the Fighting Saints compete tonight," Cunningham said. "They passed sharply, rebounded robustly and shot sweetly. They flew around with a purpose on defense, too. It was neat to see the fellas unselfishly look for Match, aware that he was feeling a special kind of rhythm. Rocky played well; they're a tough outfit.
 
"The Saints were 25 of 48 (52.1 percent) from the field, including 17 of 28 (60.7 percent) in the first half. Carroll spent a lot of time at the charity stripe and took advantage, hitting 29 of 35 (82.9 percent) on the game. The Saints had 17 assists on 17 made shots.
 
Along with Burnham's 39 points, Zach Taylor tallied 18 points and Ryan Imhoff had 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
 
The Bears were 30 of 66 (45.5 percent) from the field and just 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) from the line. Rocky also tallied 14 turnovers on seven Carroll steals.

The game was lone contest of the week for the Saints. They return to action Thursday, Feb. 11 against Montana Tech in Helena.