Men's Basketball | 02/01/24 | 10:35 AM

HELENA, Mont. - The Carroll College Basketball teams will make their first trip to Butte this season, ready to do battle with Montana Tech for the second of three critical Frontier Conference showdowns. The Women will start the evening off with a 5 p.m. tip, followed by the Men's game at 7 p.m.

On both sides of the action the Fighting Saints find themselves sitting atop the Frontier table. The Carroll Women (15-4, 6-1) are on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Orediggers (10-10, 1-6), while the Men (12-8, 6-1) are tied with Montana Tech (16-4, 6-1) for first place in the league.

The Carroll Women enter tonight's game with a new ranking. The Saints are the No. 8 team in the NAIA following a loss to now-ranked No. 13 Providence last Saturday. Montana Tech has the unfortunate task of trying to slow down what will surely be a refocused, and slightly angry, Carroll team looking to get things back on track.

Through 19 games on the season, Jamie Pickens (Helena, Mont. / GR) has 13 double-doubles. On the year, she is second in the Frontier in scoring (17.7 ppg) and first in the league in rebounding (10.8 rpg).

As a whole, Carroll is the far superior offensive team on the season. Four Carroll starters average more points per game (Pickens - 17.7, Geritz - 12.3, Albrecht - 10.3, Keller 10.2) than the Orediggers' leading scorer, Liv Wangerin (9.6 ppg).

On the Men's front, few games in the Frontier mean more than tonight's battle.

Carroll will be looking to avenge their lone conference loss of the season, and tonight's winner will have sole possession of first place in the league. A Carroll win would even the season series, making the third matchup of the season a tiebreaker, should it come down to that.

Andrew Cook (Huntington Beach, Calif. / JR) has been as good as anyone in the NAIA over the past month. For the second-consecutive week, Cook enters the Thursday night game as the reigning Frontier Player of the Week. A pair of 27-point performances last week extended his league leading scoring average to 20.7 points per game.

The rebounding battle was a huge factor in the second half of the first meeting between the teams, and Carroll will need its trio of big men (Zane Foster, Derek Kramer, Murat Guzelocak) to clean up the paint if they want to win this evening. 

The Saints are 2-8 on the season when allowing 80 points or more. Tech enters the night averaging 85.6 points per game, and Carroll will be looking to slow down the Oredigger attack in hopes of a win.

Both games will be streamed on the Montana Tech YouTube page HERE.

Catch Voice of the Saints, Nick Dietzen, and Carroll Hall of Famer, Gary Turcott, call the action live on Rewind 94.9 FM, or online HERE.

Live stats for the Women can be followed HERE, and Men HERE.

Visit www.carrollathletics.com this evening for a full recap of the action, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.