DILLON, Mont. - The Carroll Men's Basketball team saw an early lead fade away in a 78-69 road loss to Montana Western on Thursday evening at the Straugh Gymnasium.

The Fighting Saints (5-10, 0-2) struggled to knock down shots beyond the arc, and fell victim to a career night from the Bulldogs' (10-5, 2-0) Kyle Gruhler in their second true road game of the 2024-25 season.

The beginning of the game belonged solely to the Saints. Over the first nine minutes of action, Carroll jumped out of the gates for a 14-point lead, 20-8. James Lang (Portland, Ore. / R-JR) scored seven early points, while Carroll saw full team production both on the glass and from the floor in the early run.

Western responded with a 12-1 run of their own over the following five minutes. Carroll managed to hold their lead for the majority of the half, but the Bulldogs finished the first 20 minutes strong, grabbing a 34-33 lead with just seconds remaining to carry momentum into the halftime break.

Lang led the Saints with his seven first half points, while Isaac Round (Northampton, England / FR) and Isaiah Crane (Portland, Ore. / R-FR) each added six. The Saints left plenty of points on the board, however, shooting just 2-11 from three-point range in the opening stanza.

By the under-14 media timeout in the second half, Western had built a 10-point lead. By the 10-minute mark, Carroll had responded with a 10-0 run to even things up at 50-50.

From that point on, Bulldog guard Kyle Gruhler took complete control of the game, leading his team to victory. Gruhler was white-hot on Thursday, scoring a career-high 32 points on a 13-16 shooting night, hitting shot-after-shot that would keep the Saints at bay en route to the nine-point win for the Bulldogs.

Western won the rebounding battle, pulling down a team-wide 38 boards to Carroll's 26.

Gruhler led all players with his 32-point performance, while Abi Adedo finished his night with 16 points and eight rebounds.

Isaiah Crane, the Frontier's second-leading scorer, finished with team-highs 16 points and six rebounds. Lang and Round each finished with 14 points, and Derek Kramer (Bellevue, Wash. / JR) rounded out the Saints with double-digit scoring figures at 10 points.

Carroll will shift focus towards a Saturday afternoon rivalry game on the road in Butte, as they take on No. 6 Montana Tech 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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