By HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll Men’s Basketball team went wire-to-wire in a Thursday night win over MSU-Northern, 67-49 to complete their second lap of Frontier Conference play at the Carroll College PE Center.
The Fighting Saints (10-13, 5-5) picked up their 10th win of the season, and their second straight 18-point win as they rolled past MSU-Northern on their home court.
Points were extremely hard to come by for either side in the opening 10 minutes of the game. Midway through the opening half, Carroll held a 9-5 as both teams struggled to score.
Northern trimmed the lead to just two points at the 8:51 mark at 15-13, but the Saints would finally find their footing and begin to build a healthy lead. Carroll proceeded to end the opening half on a 19-6 run, blowing things wide open heading into the break.
The 19-6 run was not spurred by one individual performance, rather a full team effort as momentum began building after seeing some shots start to fall. Isaiah Crane (Portland, Ore. / R-FR) was the lone Saint to score in double figures in the frame, going 4-8 from the floor for 11 first half points. Derek Kramer (Bellevue, Wash. / JR) and Isaiah Moore (Fairfield, Calif. / JR) combined for 10 points while pulling down six rebounds apiece, and all eight players that saw the court scored at least once in the frame.
The Lights would trim the Carroll lead to single digits at the 14-minute Media timeout, but that would be all the closer the game would get for the remainder. A 14-0 run from the Saints over the next seven minutes would prove to be an insurmountable lead for Northern. Their late push would be far too little, too late, and the Saints would coast to the lopsided win in the low-scoring affair.
Carroll’s 49 points allowed was their fewest on the season, and the Saints have now held Northern under 60 points in each of their meetings this season (Jan. 18 – W 80-58).
Crane, who continues to lead the Frontier Conference in scoring at 17.3 ppg, was the Saints’ leading scorer with 19 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Kramer finished his night with 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds, helping Carroll win the rebounding battle 36-27 on the evening.
Northern’s Leon Sayers IV was impressive in the loss, scoring a game-high 21 points. Jack Reardon was the lone other Light to score in double figures with 10 points.
The Saints will look to win the season series against the Bulldogs of Montana Western this weekend, as the pair begin the final stretch of Frontier play with a 4 p.m. tip on Saturday.
Visit www.carrollathletics.com for a preview of that game, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.
