By The No. 6-ranked Carroll Women saw a late-game cold spell lead to a 75-66 loss to No. 14 Providence in the Frontier Conference Championship game on Saturday night.
The Fighting Saints (24-5, 14-1) fought a back-and-forth battle for most of the night, but couldn’t come up with key points down the stretch in their final Frontier contest of the season.
From the opening tip, Saturday’s title game was bound to be a slugfest. Carroll made up for a poor shooting first quarter (2-10) by going 5-6 from the free throw line to stay within one possession at the quarter break, trailing 13-10.
Willa Albrecht (Billings, Mont. / R-JR) continued her great play during this weekend’s tournament, going 3-4 from three point range, finishing the second quarter with 11 points. Thanks to Albrecht’s sharpshooting Carroll shot nearly 70 percent from the floor, but Providence shot 64 percent in their own right to keep pace. Carroll lead at the half, 34-32.
Nine points from Providence’s Maddy Dixon proved to be the difference in quarter three, as Carroll saw the lead flip heading into the fourth with Providence up 52-50.
Jamie Pickens (Helena, Mont. / GR) went to work in the fourth, scoring seven of her team-high 24 points, and with four minutes remaining Carroll held a four point lead. From there, Providence went on a 10-1 run as the Saints couldn’t buy a basket, and the Argos would escape with the tournament crown.
Pickens finished with yet another double-double, tallying 24 points and 16 rebounds, and Willa Albrecht added 20 points to pace the Saints.
Likely Frontier newcomer of the year, Ashlee Maldonado, led the Argos with a game-high 28 points.
A lock for the NAIA tournament, Carroll will await the results of the NAIA selection show on Thursday to figure out which three teams will join them at the PE Center for their opening round pod on March 15-16.
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