HELENA, Mont. - Head Coach Dan Pearson and the Carroll Men's Basketball team picked up their first Frontier Conference win on Thursday evening, cruising past No. 19 Rocky Mountain College 96-80 at the Carroll College PE Center.

The Fighting Saints (6-11, 1-3) grabbed a momentum-building win on Thursday, handing the newly-ranked No. 19 Battlin' Bears (14-3, 3-1) their first Frontier loss of the season in convincing fashion.

Rocky came out as the aggressor in the opening minutes. An Omari Nesbit three pointer gave the Bears their largest lead of the game (+7) at the 15-minute mark of the opening half, but the tide would soon swing well in favor of the Saints. Isaiah Moore (Fairfield, Calif. / JR) responded with a three of his own just 13 seconds later. A pair of threes by Kellen Harrison (Bozeman, Mont. / FR) and Isaac Round (Northampton, England / FR) would give Carroll a lead with 13 minutes left in the half. Rocky would go back in front at the midway point 25-23, before Carroll took complete control of the game.

The Saints exploded in the back-end of the first half, out-scoring the Frontier's top team 34-17 over the final ten minutes of the half. Carroll was lights-out from beyond the arc, knocking down 60 percent of their three-point attempts (9-15). Round was the catalyst from deep, going 4-5 from range for 12 first half points, while pulling down a team-high four rebounds in the process. The Saints saw production all the way through their lineup, with nine different players scoring in the first half, combining for a blistering 62.9 percent from the field to lead big at the break, 59-42.

Carroll was up for the challenge of holding on to their hard-earned lead in the second half, refusing to let Rocky get within 10 points for the remainder of the game. Both teams slowed down offensively in the second half, both scoring fewer than 40 points in the frame.

With 15 minutes remaining, the Bears narrowed the Carroll lead to as little as 11 points, but that was all the closer they would get. Carroll continued to get timely baskets, stops, and knocked down 8-9 free throw attempts in the second half to hold off the Rocky comeback attempt and upend the previously unbeaten in conference play Bears, 96-80.

Isaiah Crane (Portland, Ore. / R-FR) scored 14 of his team-high 24 points in the second half, going 9-13 from the floor to lead the way for the Saints, while Isaac Round finished his stellar evening with a 21-point, seven-rebound performance. Isaiah Moore scored nine, while Kramer Lang, Cuaresma, and Harrison each tallied eight points in the complete team win.

Carroll was edged out in the rebound department (32-33), but turned the ball over seven fewer times than the Bears (CC 14, RMC 21). Even after cooling off a bit in the second half, the Saints still finished the game with their second-best shooting night of the season, going 36-64 from the field (56.3 percent).

The Carroll bench out-scored Rocky 27-14 on the night, and the Saints converted for 19 second chance points in the win.

Rocky's Omari Nesbit was a bright spot for the Bears, finishing with a team-high 24 points after starting the game 7-7 from the field in the opening half. Jaylon Lee, who entered the game leading the Bears in scoring (15.5 ppg) and rebounding (12.7 rpg) was held to just 12 points and seven rebounds before fouling out.

The Saints will look to make it two-in-a-row on Saturday, as they head to Havre for their first meeting with MSU-Northern to wrap up the first lap of Frontier Conference play at 4 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.

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