By Since the tough losing streak during the winter break trip to Arizona, the Carroll College men’s basketball team has been battling hard trying to restore their record and assert themselves in the Frontier Conference.
The Saints sit at a 5-7 conference record and an 11-12 overall record, after several hard-fought games against Montana Tech, the University of Providence, Montana State-Northern, Montana Western, and Rocky Mountain College.
A notable game during this stretch was against Montana Tech on Jan. 21, when the Saints pulled off an incredible win against the #12 ranked team in the nation. The students and community showed out for the well-known rivalry between both schools, with roughly 2,400 spectators in the PE Center. The atmosphere was electric, and the game lived up to its expectations, as it was a close contest from the moment the ball was tipped up until the final buzzer.
With under a minute left, Carroll had the ball after a timeout and the score was 78-77. The Saints worked the shot clock to its final seconds, and Gui Pedra, a junior forward majoring in Communication from Sao Paulo, Brazil, finished with the possession and a dunk that exploded the crowd. On the next possession, the Saints forced a turnover and knocked down the clutch free throws, and secured the win with a final score of 84-77.
Brayden Koch, a freshman guard from Helena, Montana, majoring in criminology assisted in the Carroll win.
“The game was a battle,” said Koch. “Every time we hit a shot they would come down and answer it, they’re tough, We just played better and stuck to the game plan and did whatever it took to seal the win.”
Koch had a great showdown finishing with 22 points, making four 3-pointers, and pulling 5 rebounds in the game.
“The experience was amazing. I’ve been around crowds like that and I think the biggest thing is to not get overly hyped up or confident, staying poised throughout the whole game,” said Koch.
Another accomplishment came from Andrew Cook, a sophomore guard from Huntington Beach, California, majoring in psychology, who grabbed both the Frontier Conference and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Player of the Week awards after his performances against Montana Western and Montana Tech. Cook managed to average 27.5 points per game (including a career-high 31 point performance against Western) while shooting 65.5% from the field and 89.5% from the free throw line. He also averaged six rebounds and four assists per game.
“It felt awesome. The award came out of the blue so it just caught me by surprise,” said Cook. “All glory to God for blessing me with it. It was a fun week. I had a lot of people congratulating me and that felt nice. Definitely a surreal moment and super motivating to keep working hard. And shout out to the coaches and my teammates too. They all put me in the right positions and believed and trusted me.”
The Saints will now finish their last few games of the regular season, which will define their final seeding for the conference tournament that will be played on a neutral site in Great Falls this year. A tournament championship would mean an automatic qualification for the NAIA National Tournament. If not, the team will have to hope for an at-large bid to qualify for the postseason.
