HELENA, Mont. – The No. 20 and third-seeded Carroll College women's basketball team hosts six-seed Montana Tech Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the Frontier Conference playoffs.
The two teams met in the quarterfinals of last year's tournament and the Orediggers left the Saints out of the Semifinals. Fast forward to this season and Carroll has beaten Montana Tech three times. They will look to make it a fourth Wednesday.
"We're not looking at last season and we are certainly not looking at the three games this season," head coach
Rachelle Sayers said. "We want to make sure we are playing at the top of our game right now."
The Orediggers' Hattie Thatcher leads the way at 12.78 points per game. She went off for a season-high 27 points in their win at MSU-Northern last week. Martha Dembek averaged 11.77 per game but also had a big game against Northern, scoring 31.
The Diggers are playing their best basketball of the season and have won three of their last four games. They have also scored more than 72 points in each of those wins.
"Defensively, we have to limit the touches of their big two, Thatcher and Dembek and we really have to make sure that we control the tempo," Sayers said. "Offensively we have to take advantage of our strength, which is our size and our rebounding to get the ball in the hands of the people we want shooting the basketball."
The Saints are looking to build on a 2-0 weekend that includeds good shooting from a squad that had struggled lately in that department. The Saints also have their two senior captains,
Katie Estey and
Jordan Johnston, at near full strength after both sat out with long prolonged health issues.
"It is big to have Jordan back in the lineup and I think this quarterfinals game is one more game to get Katie back in a rhythm," Sayers said. "Our team is in a great place. They understand what is at stake, they understand what it takes to make it noise in the national tournament. We need to go in there playing well and being the hot team, and this next week is a great opportunity to do that."
The Saints and Argos take the floor at 7 p.m. at the PE Center. If the Saints win, they will move on to face the University of Great Falls Saturday evening in the Electric City.
