HELENA, Mont. – Zach Taylor scored a career-high 35 points and the No. 20 Carroll College men's basketball team overcame a double digit-deficit to top Rocky Mountain College 84-81 and earned a spot in the Frontier Conference Championship. 
 
The Saints started the game on a 12-2 to run, spurred by eight early points from Taylor, to take an early lead over the Bears with 15:21 left in the first half.
 
Rocky switched their defense to a zone and responded with a 17-5 run. The Bears took the lead 19-17 after a bucket by Chad Kananen with 7:56 remaining the first half.
 
After a bucket and two free throws by Zach Taylor, the Saints cut the Rocky lead to 27-26 with 3:24 left in the half. 
 
Rob Nyby hit a 3-pointer to cap off a 13-5 stretch by the Bears that gave them a 40-31 lead going into halftime.
 
Taylor started the second hald 4-4 from the field, scoring the first nine points for the Saints and cut the score to 45-41 with 16:36 remaining in the game.
 
After two free throws by Match Burnham, Taylor stole the ball from Rocky Mountain and hit a 3-pointer on the fast break to give Carroll the lead 46-45 with 15:10 left in the half.
 
Rocky Mountain responded with a 7-0 run to recapture a 54-50 lead with 13:00 remaining in the game.
 
Buckets from Ryan Imhoff, Burnham, and Matt Wyman led the Saints on a 9-2 spurt to give Carroll a 59-54 lead with 10:18 left in the half.
 
The Saints increased the lead to 70-61 after a bucket by Imhoff off of an assist from Ife Kalejaiye with 7:31 remaining in the game.
 
Rocky again answered with another 13-5 run to close the game to 75-74 with just 4:07 left in the half but that would be as close as they would come. 
 
Taylor and Tiegan Johnson traded 3-pointers down the stretch to keep the game close at 80-79 with 2:00 minutes left.
 
With just a six second difference between the shot clock and the game, Carroll leading 82-81, Taylor held the ball at the top of the court.  He drove and kicked the ball out to Lorel Johnson who hit a 15-foot jump shot. The bears had one more shot but Taylor Longo's shot at the buzzer but the ball hit back rim and the Saints earned the 84-81 win.
 
Along with Taylor's career-high in points, he was the team's leading rebounder with seven.  Imhoff finished with 21 points and six rebounds.  Burnham recorded 14 points, five rebounds and led the team with four assists.
 
Carroll was 30 of 60 from the field despite shooting just five of 19 from the three-point line. The Saints were 19 of 21 from the free throw line.
 
The Bears were 30 of 66 from the field, including a stellar11 of 20 from the three-point line but were just 10 of 14 from the charity stripe.
 
Rocky outrebounded the Saints 35-27 but committed 15 turnovers to the Saints 13.
 
The Saints will travel to 6th-ranked Lewis-Clark State for the Frontier Conference Championship on Monday at 8 p.m. MST.  LCSC is 27-4 on the season after beating Great Falls 76-68 in the semifinals on Friday.