HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll Men's Basketball team earned a hard-fought 80-78 victory over Montana Tech Thursday night in the PE Center as they resumed conference play for the remainder of the season. 

The Saints and Orediggers went back and forth for the majority of the first half before the Saints went on a run to end the half, punctuated by a Shamrock Campbell three moments before the buzzer. Carroll took a 44-37 lead into the locker room.

Much of the second half the Saints held their lead at a safe distance before the Orediggers made a run to cut the game to two with less than a minute to play. Clutch free throw shooting by Johnny Hillman and Jovan Sljivancinin held the Orediggers at bay however and granted the Saints a coveted win over a tough Montana Tech squad.

Sindou Diallo eclipsed his season average with 18 points to lead the otherwise balanced attack for the Orediggers on the offensive end.

Jovan Sljivancanin and Shamrock Campbell once again led the Saints in scoring with 22 and 16 points respectively. Sljivancanin added 10 rebounds and 5 assists as well. Ifeanyi Okeke added 13 more points with 5 rebounds. Campbell, Sljivancinin and Okeke each shot at or above 50% from the field for the game.

Montana Tech figures to play a big factor atop the Frontier Conference standings this year and in the latest NAIA ranking is the top team receiving votes. The loss however drops them to 13-5 overall and 2-1 in the Frontier Conference.

The Carroll Fighting Saints improve to 16-1 and 3-0 in Frontier Conference play and will look ahead to a matchup with Rocky Mountain College Saturday afternoon at 4:00pm in the PE center.