GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The Carroll College women's basketball team rode a big second and third quarter and balanced shooting to earn a 78-65 win over the University of Providence Sunday evening at the McLaughlin Center in Great Falls.
Three Saints scored in double figures led by Bailey Pasta with 14, Dani Wagner with 12 and Hannah Dean with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The first quarter was a back and forth battle and tied at 15 before Providence closed from on a 7-0 run to take a 22-15 lead into the second quarter.
Providence built a 25-17 lead before the Saints went on the attack. Carroll closed the first half on a 17-4 run to take a 39-32 lead into the half.
The Saints continued the scoring into the third quarter and extended the lead to 60-42 with 2:44 to play in the third before the Argos closed the quarter on a 5-0 run to cut it to 60-47 at the break.
The two teams battled back and forth, but UP failed to cut the advantage to single digits as the Saints cruised to the 13-point win.
Carroll responded after a frustrating night Saturday at MSU-Northern in which the team was just 18-54 from the field. Sunday, Carroll put up the best shooting performance of the season, hitting 30-58 (51.7 percent) from the field, including 11-22 (50 percent) from the three-point line.
Carroll tallied 17 assists, tied for the best performance of the year. The Saints also dominated the glass, with a 41-26 rebounding advantage. Carroll also tallied seven blocks, four from Dean. The lone blemish on the night was 21 turnovers.
Stephanie McDonagh led UP with 20 points, Emilee Maldonado scored 15, and Parker Esary added 11. The Argos were 20-52 (38.5 percent) from the field and 5-14 (35.7 percent) from the three-point line.
Providence entered the game with a 9-1 record and a 1-0 Frontier mark. The Saints were coming off a disappointing loss against MSU-Northern, but head coach
Rachelle Sayers said that her team responded when put in the corner.
"We just talked about being confident and trusting ourselves. We talked about throwing the first punch and just keep battling," Sayers said. "They showed great maturity with the lineup change and a new defensive scheme that we put in to adjust to Great Falls' strengths. Our girls had great energy and played with so much intensity on both ends. We were all very disappointed in the outcome in Havre, the gals knew we were a better team than what we showed, so I'm really happy to see us get the job done tonight."
The game was the second of two early-season conference games for the Saints. Carroll's next conference games come on Jan. 4 at home against Montana Western, but the Saints continue the non-conference slate next weekend with a pair of games in Spokane against NCAA DIII schools Whitman and Whitworth.
