HELENA, Mont. - The No. 2-seed Carroll College Women's Basketball team battled a fast and physical No. 15-Seeded Rochester University (Mich.) team in the First Round of the 2023 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship - presented by Ballogy, going on to win 75-66 on Tuesday in Helena.

The Fighting Saints (26-5, 14-1) survived heavy pressure from a Rochester (21-11, 16-6) team playing with nothing to lose, outlasting the Warriors 75-66 in front of a tremendous crowd at the Carroll College PE Center.

Carroll got things rolling early, and a crowd of 2,000 sounded like 20,000 as Kamden Hilborn (Clancy, Mont. / GR) buried a three pointer to open the scoring. The Saints would begin the game on 10-3 run. After a back-and-forth middle of the quarter, Rochester would take the lead on a Jacara Thompson and-one play in the paint with a minute-and-a-half remaining in the opening period. Jamie Pickens would make a layup to end the quarter, and the Saints would trail by one point heading into the second.

The Saints would start the second quarter on a 12-5 run, with most of the points coming from Jamie Pickens (Helena, Mont. / SR), to stretch their lead to seven points. Again, a scrappy Warrior squad would fight their way back, eventually tying things up at 35 apiece with two minutes remaining in the half. The two teams would each add another two points before the buzzer, and the game would enter the halftime break tied 37-37. Pickens posted seven points and six boards in the second quarter.

A recurring story, Carroll would open the third quarter with a 9-2 run to once again stretch the lead out to seven points. This time, however, the Saints would keep their distance. From that point on, Rochester would only manage to trim the Carroll lead to as little as five points. Carroll would extend the lead to as large as nine points, but would settle for a 54-47 lead heading into the final quarter of play. 

Kyndall Keller (Havre, Mont. / JR) came up clutch for the Saints in the fourth. The Junior would score eight of her 18 points in the frame. A Keller layup with five minutes remaining would give Carroll its largest lead of the night at 12 points. The Warriors would make one final push, narrowing the lead to as little as six points, but their effort would come up short and Carroll would close out the 75-66 victory.

Jamie Pickens posted yet another double-double in her 2022-23 campaign, finishing with a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds. 

Three of the other four Carroll starters all finished with double-digit points on the night. Kyndall Keller finished with 18 points. Maddie Gertiz (Boise, Idaho / R-SR) finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Kamden Hilborn finished with 11 points and eight assists.

Elysia Mattos and Jacara Thompson each scored 11 points to lead the Warriors effort.

Carroll advances to take on No. 7-seed Jamestown, who won a highly-entertaining game earlier in the night over No. 10-seeded IU-South Bend. 

Tomorrow's second round contest will tip off at 7:05 p.m. from the Carroll College PE Center. Tickets for that game are available online HERE, as well as at the door.

Visit www.carrollathletics.com tomorrow for a preview of the game, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.