HELENA, Mont. -- The No. 8 Carroll College Fighting Saints made their Senior Night a memorable one, defeating No. 24 Rocky Mountain College 55-43 on Saturday night in the PE Center. 

"Rocky is such a grind it out team," Saints coach Rachelle Sayers told Sports 94.9. "They do a great job. They're big and physical. It's a tough matchup with us. I thought when we finally got moving in the second half and got some tempo to our offense we were really able to execute. The fourth quarter especially we were able to get going." 

The victory cemented Carroll's regular season and put the Saints (22-7, 14-4 Frontier Conference) on a seven-game winning streak heading into the postseason. The Saints finished No. 2 in the Frontier and will host Montana Tech (13-16) on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. The Saints swept the Orediggers in the regular season. 

Most fittingly, Hannah Dean, the senior from Gardiner, Montana, led all scorers with 19 points and added four steals. Jaidyn Lyman also gave the Saints a big scoring punch, ripping off 16 points on the evening. 

Dean poured in the first seven points of the game, energizing the Saints from the jump. 

"The Dean Machine," Sayers said.  I thought Hannah took the team on her shoulders."

The Saints outscored Rocky in every quarter, building a 17-point advantage early in the fourth quarter to leave no doubt of the end result. 

And Carroll's defense, once again, made its mark. Carroll has held four of its last five opponents under 50 points. 

On Saturday, the Saints deployed a combination of Jaidyn Lyman and Sienna Swannack on Rocky freshman point guard Kloie Thatcher. Each Saint took turns face-guarding and denying the ball from Thatcher. 

"Defensively I thought Jaidyn Lyman and Sienna Swannack did a tremendous job on Thatcher," Sayers said. 

Thatcher scored 26 points against the Saints when the Battlin' Bears upset Carroll in Billings on Jan. 17. On Saturday, she finished with six points on 3-for-8 shooting.

Justyn Juhl led the Battlin' Bears with 16 points. 

The Saints will be back in the PE Center on Tuesday to face Montana Tech at 7 p.m. Tickets for the game go on sale at 9 a.m. Monday.

Notes: Carroll honored seniors Hannah Dean, Brittney Johnson, Cassidy (Hashey) Kosena and Mikaela Olson after the game.