HELENA, Mont. - The No. 22-ranked Carroll Women's Basketball team picked up another hard-earned Frontier Conference win on Thursday night, topping Montana Western 63-48 at the Carroll College PE Center.

The Fighting Saints (13-6, 4-1) turned it up a notch when it was needed the most, going perfect from the field in the fourth quarter to power past the Bulldogs (7-11, 2-4) to begin lap two of the Frontier slate.

The shot-making struggles from Saturday's win over MSU-Northern carried over into the first quarter for the Saints on Thursday. As a team Carroll went just 4-14 from the floor in the opening stanza, and a normally sure-handed group of Saints turned the ball over seven times to help give Western a 12-11 lead after one.

Points were again hard to come by for both sides in the second quarter. Western's Trinidie Nichols provided seven points off the bench while the teams combined to shoot just 25 percent from the floor (8-32). A last second basket from Addi Ekstrom (Bozeman, Mont. / SR) was deemed after the buzzer and wiped off the board following a review, as the Bulldogs brought a 23-22 lead into the break.

Kyndall Keller's two three-pointers in the first quarter saw her lead the Saints in scoring in the first 20, as the shooting woes continued throughout the team.

Coming out of the break, the Saints offensive production picked up. Keller added another six, while the tandem of Meagan Karstetter (Moses Lake, Wash. / JR) and Isabelle Erickson (Broadview, Mont. / R-JR) combined for nine points as the Saints finally started to find the bottom of the net. The team shot above 50 percent in the frame (7-13) and created a small bit of separation heading into the final 10 minutes, 39-36.

Carroll went perfect across the stat sheet in the final frame, shooting 10-10 from the floor, 1-1 from three-point range, and 3-3 from the free throw line to blow the game open. Karstetter was dominant inside, adding seven points to her tally, while Keller added six more to hers as the Saints marched to their fifth Frontier win of the season.

Four Saints posted double-digit scoring figures, led by Keller's game-high 18 points (Karstetter - 13, Ekstrom - 10, Erickson - 10).

Isabelle Erickson was a force on the glass for the second straight meeting with the Bulldogs, posting her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, helping lead the Saints to a 37-26 advantage in total boards.

Western's Trinidie Nichols led her team with 13 points off of the bench in the loss.

Carroll will have a quick turnaround, as they look to beat No. 23 Providence for the second team this season, Saturday at 2 p.m. in Great Falls.

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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