GREAT FALLS, Mont. - The Carroll College Men's Basketball team's season came to an unfortunate end on Sunday as they fell to Rocky Mountain College in a quarterfinal of the Frontier Conference Tournament in Great Falls.

The Fighting Saints (13-14, 7-8) could not keep pace with a hot-shooting Rocky Mountain College (14-14, 6-9) team on Sunday, falling 82-58 at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.

Gui Pedra (Sao Paolo, Brazil / JR) scored the first five points of the game, and putting the Saints on top early. Rocky would respond however, and quickly shift the advantage to six points in their favor near the midway point of the opening half. Jonny Hillman (Post Falls, Idaho / SR) converted an and-one opportunity with seven minutes left in the half to tie the game at 21-21. Andrew Cook (Huntington Beach, Calif. / SO) would take over from that point, scoring seven of the next ten Carroll points en route to a 34-33 halftime lead for the Saints.

The second half started out exactly how Carroll drew it up. The Saints opened the half on a 6-0 run culminated with an emphatic dunk from Cook, but that would be nearly all that the Carroll crowd would have to cheer about. From that point on, it seemed as though every single shot that the Battlin' Bears put up would go in. Rocky would go on an 30-5 run over the next seven minutes, racing out to an 18 point lead that would prove insurmountable for the Saints. Rocky would go on to win, 82-58.

The Bears shot 63 percent from the field as a team in the second half, and a staggering 54.5 percent from three point range, while Carroll managed just 31 percent from the field while going 0-7 from deep in the second frame.

Andrew Cook led the Saints in scoring, finishing with 17 points to go with his six rebounds. Brendan Temple (Castle Rock, Colo. / SR) scored 16 points and pulled down seven boards in the game. Brayden Koch (Helena, Mont. / FR) and Gui Pedra each scored nine points in the loss.

Rocky's Jesse Owens scored a game-high 20 points, followed by 17 points from Maxim Stephens. Nick Hart pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for the Bears.

A frustration season comes to a close for a young, but talented, Saints team. Carroll will graduate just two seniors, Jonny Hillman and Brendan Temple, and will look to build off of the foundation that the young core has assembled in 2022-23. 

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