HELENA, Mont. -- The No. 17 Carroll College Fighting Saints men's basketball team staved off Rocky Mountain College, 68-60, on Tuesday evening in the PE Center. 

"It was a grinder," Saints coach Kurt Paulson said. "Rocky is playing with desperation. Give those guys credit. I feel for those kids. They are playing their hearts out and coach (Bill) Dreikosen is giving it all they have. They're short-handed and gave us everything we could handle tonight."


The Fighting Saints (18-7, 9-4 Frontier Conference) and Battlin' Bears fought evenly in the first half, entering halftime tied at 30. That would change in the second half as the Saints wrestled their way to a multiple-possession lead and thwarted any comeback bids from RMC (6-16, 1-12). 

Dane Warp scored the first six points of the second half and that would be enough to keep Rocky down. RMC cut the lead to five on several occasions, but could never get any closer. 

"We got Dane going a little bit. He's interviewing at medical schools every other weekend. He has to fly and get places. He hustles back on a plane. He got back at midnight last night," Paulson said. "Kudos to our guys for hanging in there." 

Warp led all scorers with 21 points, while Jovan Sljivancanin added 16 points and 13 rebounds. Ifeanyi Okeke joined the duo in double figures with 11 points of his own. 

The Battlin' Bears received 19 points from Grant Wallace. 

The win keeps the Saints hovering at the No. 2 spot in the Frontier Conference. Next up, the Saints will head down to Dillon to face Montana Western (10-13, 3-9) on Saturday.

"We'll get some rest and refocused," Paulson said. "We'll have a gameplan for these guys. It's going to be a tough game down there."