GAME NOTES

THIS WEEK'S GAMES
No. 10 Carroll College begins the second of three rounds of Frontier Conference play Thursday with Montana Western in Dillon before traveling to Lewis-Clark Saturday. The Saints are 13-4 overall and 5-1 in the Frontier, Western is 12-6 overall and 2-4 in league and LCSC the Warriors are 12-5 on the season and 3-3 in conference. 

The Saints' only Frontier loss came at the hands of MSU-Northern in the conference opener, but have looked stellar since. They topple Western 82-45 in their first meeting and defeated LCSC 73-67.

ABOUT CARROLL
Hannah Dean leads the Saints in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. She has stepped into the absence of senior All-American Cassidy Hashley and leads the team with 12.6 points per game.  Senior point guard Bailey Pasta is second on the team with 10.0 points per game.  

Carroll is the No. 6 scoring defense in NAIA DI at 54.2 points per game, fifth in total rebound defense and eigth in blocks per game. 

The Saints have outscored opponents 1089-922.

ABOUT MONTANA-WESTERN
The Bulldogs are led by junior college transfer Brianna King at 17.0 points per game. King is the only UMW player to average double figures. The Saints held her to just 10 points on 12.5 percent shooting from the field. Britt Cooper leads the team with 7.2 rebounds per game. 

ABOUT LEWIS-CLARK STATE
Five LCSC players average 10.0 points per game or more with Brittany Tackett and Lauren Johnson are tops with 10.2 point per game. Jossilyn Blackman grabs a game-high 6.4 rebounds. The Warriors are the top team in the conference in scoring at 77.47 points per game. 

DIVISION I UPSET
The Saints toppled Mountain West Conference defending champion Boise State 62-61 in an exhibition game on Nov. 5 at Taco Bell Arena in Boise. Hannah Dean hit a fadeaway jumper with 18 seconds remaining, and the Carroll defense shut down a three-point attempt at the buzzer to close out the win. The Saints were .414 from the field and .545 from the three-point line. Bailey Pasta led the Saints with 13 points, Brittney Johnson had 11 and Hannah Dean tallied nine points and 12 rebounds. 

DEAN DOMINATING
Hannah Dean has been dominant on the court with double figures in every Frontier Conference game of the season. She scored a career-high 23 points at The Master's. She is 13th in NAIA DI in Blocks per game, 21st in total rebounds and 44th in free throw percentage. 

PASTA SHOOTING IMPROVEMENT
After going 0-7 from the field in the first game of the year, Bailey Pasta had been 33.3 percent or better from the three-point line in every game since, except one. She broke the 50 percent mark six times. With a game-high 71.4 percent (5-7) against the Master's.

BLOCK PARTY
Hannah Dean (13) and Michaela Dowdy (43) both rank in the top 50 in blocks per game. The Saints are eighth as a team.

FRESHMAN BOOST
True freshman Christine Denney and redshirt freshman Dani Wagner have stepped into the starting lineup and Jaidyn Lyman has had a big impact ranking 36th in NAIA DI for assist/turnover ratio.  

SITTING OUT
Senior All-American Cassidy Hashley and junior guard Sara Chalich are both out for the season and will take medical redshirt seasons. 

THE FIERCE FRONTIER 
Four Teams from the Frontier made the NAIA Championship last season. Rocky Mountain earned an automatic bid as the host. Lewis-Clark, Montana Western and MSU-Northern all made the trek to Billings. Every team in the conference except Montana Tech has played in the NAIA tournament at least once in the last two seasons. Every team in the Frontier has at least received votes in the poll this season and every team except Montana Tech has entered the poll.