Men's Basketball | 01/20/24 | 9:27 PM

Box Score HELENA, Mont. - The Carroll Men's Basketball team continued their good play as of late, earning their largest Frontier Conference win of the season, 78-64 over MSU-Northern on Saturday afternoon at the PE Center.

The Fighting Saints (10-8, 4-1) are a team on the rise. A bell-to-bell complete team effort gave Carroll a momentum-building win over the Lights (9-9, 1-4).

Right from the start, it was clear that the Saints were all on the same page. Every piece of the puzzle seemed to fit, and all five players seemed to be in sync all night long.

The first ten minutes of the game were tightly contested, but Carroll would go on a 23-5 run spanning nearly nine minutes to break the game open. The Saints shot 56 percent from the floor (17-30) in the first half, and 50 percent from deep en route to a 44-26 halftime lead. 

Andrew Cook (Huntington Beach, Calif. / JR) was a man on a mission, scoring 15 first half points to lead the purple and gold, while Kendall Moore (Dayton, Ohio / JR) and Gui Pedra (Sao Paolo, Brazil / SR) each added seven points of their own.

The Lights would respond early in the second half. Northern opened the frame on a 9-0 run to cut the Carroll lead to single-digits.

The Saints were able to weather the storm, however, never letting their lead dip below 10 points over the game's final 16-plus minutes, and Carroll would ride Cook's 15-second half points to a 78-64 win.

Cook led all scorers on the night, posting a highly-impressive 30 point, four rebound performance. Cook was a three level threat in the game, knocking down shots inside the paint, beyond the arc, and in the mid-range on 71 percent shooting.

Kendall Moore added 13 points, alongside seven assists, while Zane Foster (Puyallup, Wash. / JR) pulled down eight rebounds and scored seven points of his own.

The Lights were led by Zackry Martinez and JJ Nelson, who scored 18 and 15 points, respectively.

With Montana Tech's loss at Providence this afternoon, the Carroll win boosted them into a tie for first place atop the Frontier standings.

A trip to Dillon for a rematch with Montana Western awaits the Saints this Thursday, before returning home for Providence on Saturday.

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