HELENA, Mont. - No. 11 Carroll College women's basketball has at least a share of the Frontier Conference title in hand after the Saints topped Providence 67-54 Saturday in Great Falls. This weekend, the Saints host Lewis-Clark Thursday and No. 15 Montana Western Saturday.
One win in the two games will give Carroll the outright title, and head coach
Rachelle Sayers says her team is excited for the challenge.
"We may be Saints, but that doesn't mean we want to share," she said at the weekly radio show.
Carroll topped LCSC twice already this season and split with Montana Western. The Saints have the conference rebound and block leader in
Hannah Dean while Lewis-Clark's Peyton Souvenir has the best mark in assists and Western's Brianna King is the conference's leading scorer.
In conference games, Carroll has been stellar on defense, holding teams to just over 53 points a game, over three points per game better than Rocky Mountain, the second team in scoring defense.
Dean also leads the team scoring at 12.37 points per game, assists and blocks.
Bailey Pasta is second on the team at 10.6 points per game.
Carroll has won six-straight games, including the last three on the road and has a 21-6 record, including a 13-3 mark in conference.
Lewis-Clark, last season's NAIA National Runner-Up, comes into the contest with a 16-11 mark, including a 7-9 record in conference.
The Warriors beat Montana Tech 87-71 in Lewiston last week, but haven't put up consecutive wins in conference since starting the conference play with victories against Western and Tech.
No LCSC player averages double figures, but five players score more than 8.7 points per game. Hailey Turner scores a team-high 9.8 PPG.
Western started Frontier play 1-4 before rattling off nine-straight wins before dropping a game last week against Montana Tech. They responded with a 63-48 win over LCSC Friday in Lewiston and now sit 11-5 in conference and 21-7 overall.
Along with King's 18.5 PPG, Cierra Lamey averages 10.2 PPG.
Both games are slated to tip at 5:30 p.m. Saturday's game is senior night for Pasta,
Michaela Dowdy and
Sara Chalich. Festivities will take place between the men's and women's game.
The games will be broadcast on 94.9 ESPN Montana Radio and ESPNMontana.com. A live video stream will take place on the Carroll Youtube channel and live stats will be available via dakstats.