HELENA, Mont. - The No. 5 Carroll Women's Basketball team kept their Frontier Conference streak rolling, beating Montana Western, 81-72 on Thursday night at the Carroll College PE Center.

The Fighting Saints (11-3, 2-0) extended their win streak to 13-straight games over the Bulldogs (9-6, 1-1), holding off a late Western rally in front of a healthy crowd in Helena.

Carroll was as ice-cold as the negative temperatures outside to begin the night. The Saints didn't see their first points hit the board until near the halfway mark of the opening quarter.

Maddie Geritz (Boise, Idaho / GR) and Addi Ekstrom (Bozeman, Mont. / JR) kick-started the Carroll side in the back half of the frame, combining for 13 points, and Carroll would lead 17-14 after one.

Ekstrom continued to stay hot into the second quarter, and Kyndall Keller (Havre, Mont. / SR) added eight points of her own to help extend the Carroll lead to 40-28 heading into the halftime break. 

After shooting just 38 percent from the field in the first quarter, the Saints were highly effective in the second, shooting 67 percent as a team in the second.

The Saints saw production all the way through their lineup in the third quarter, with six different players combining to score 23 points on 50 percent shooting in the frame. Carroll brought an 18-point lead into the fourth quarter, but a resilient Western squad would not give up.

Western's Isabella Lund sparked a furious fourth quarter comeback for the Bulldogs. Lund was in on seemingly every play, nabbing three steals and scoring 10 fourth quarter points to chisel away the Carroll lead. Western cut the lead to as little as six points, but Eckstrom and Keller converted key free throws down the stretch to close the door on the Bulldog run.

Four Carroll starters posted 15 or more points in the game. Ekstrom had a team-high 19 points. Pickens recorded another monster double-double, going for 18 points and 15 boards, while Keller and Geritz each finished with 15 points.

Geritz's 15 point performance was one to remember, as she joined several of her current and former teammates as a member of the Carroll 1,000 point club.

Joelnell Momberg was hard to stop for the Bulldogs, finishing with a game-high 21 points.

Carroll will turn their attention towards a matchup with Montana Tech, as the Orediggers visit the PE Center on Saturday at 2 p.m.

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