GREAT FALLS, Mont. - The Carroll College Men's Basketball team secured a hard-fought win over Providence to begin Frontier Conference play, 67-65 on Saturday afternoon at the McLaughlin Center.

The Fighting Saints (7-7, 1-0) utilized every second allotted to pull out a quality win over a tough Argonaut team (7-7, 0-1) and even their record on the first weekend of league play.

Saturday was a milestone day for the Saints.

Head Coach Ryan Lundgren picked up his first Frontier Conference win as the leader of the Purple and Gold, and Andrew Cook (Huntington Beach, Calif. / JR) joined an exclusive group of Saints Men's Basketball players to have scored 1,000 career points.

Cook's milestone came very early on, with little fanfare. As Saints fans have grown accustomed to seeing, Cook was all over the court at the beginning of the game. A steal-turned break away gave Cook his seventh point of the game, and 1,001st of his career near the 14 minute mark of the opening half, but more importantly, gave Carroll an early 13-6 lead.

Carroll couldn't seem to ever pull away in the opening half, with a pesky Argo team countering any potential run the Saints could muster. Murat Guzelocak (Istanbul, Turkey / SR) put in a layup with just under a minute remaining to stretch Carroll's lead to eight points, but a Sam Vining three pointer would trim the lead to 39-34 at the break.

A healthy run out of halftime, capped by a Derek Kramer (Bellevue, Wash. / SO) dunk would grow the Carroll lead to a game-high 13 points at the under-14 media timeout in the second half.

Again, Providence would respond. 

The Argos would chip away at the Carroll lead, eventually taking a two point advantage of their own with under two minutes remaining on a pair of Jake Olsen free throws, 65-63.

Cook would even the game at 65-65 on a beautiful baseline look, and then give the Saints a 67-65 with 40 seconds remaining.

James Lang (Portland, Ore. / R-SO) made the play of the night. Lang tracked down a rebound off a late Providence attempt to tie, grabbing the ball, getting a foot down, and calling timeout before falling out of bounds with under a second remaining to help lock in the Frontier Conference with for the Saints.

Both Cook and Lang were the top scorers for Carroll on the afternoon. Cook finished with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Lang added 16 points, vour boards, and three assists.

Jake Olsen scored 15 points to lead the Argos, with Davien Harris-Williams and Jevon Burton each adding 12.

A pair of home games against Montana Western and Montana Tech, Thursday and Saturday, are the next order of business for the Saints.

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