HELENA -- Five of the six Frontier Conference basketball games held Thursday in the Treasure State were decided by 10 or fewer points. Two were contested within two possessions and a rough start to league play continued for one nationally-ranked program.
Women's BasketballNo. 21 Carroll College 56, Montana Western 54
DILLON -- Meagan Karstetter and Isabelle Erickson offered go-ahead free throws with under 10 seconds to play, Western's Maddy Moy missed a layup (off an inbound pass) at the buzzer and the Saints improved to 3-5 scoring less than 60 points this season.
Carroll (10-5, 2-0 Frontier) has now trailed in the fourth quarter of both league victories.
Down four points with under seven minutes to play Thursday, Carroll ended the contest on an 8-2 run, receiving game-tying buckets from Karstetter and Addi Ekstrom in waning moments.
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Ekstrom scored a team-high 16 points, her third-straight game in double figures, adding four rebounds and two steals. Karstetter and Kyndall Keller chipped in 11 apiece and combined for nine rebounds, while Erickson grabbed four offensive and a career-high 18 boards.
Neither team surpassed 34% shooting, but Western junior and Missoula Hellgate graduate Keke Davis made a season-high nine field goals to finish with 21 points. Davis achieved her second-straight double-double with 10 rebounds, adding four steals and an assist.
Payton Hagy scored 11 points, while Isabella Lund added seven and Ava Bellach chipped in five off the bench. Western (5-9, 0-2 Frontier) has now dropped four of its past six games dating back to mid-December.
Carroll has won four straight after capturing head coach Rachelle Sayers' 291st career victory.
Up next (CC): RV Montana Tech, Saturday, Butte
Up next (UMW): No. 5 Providence, Saturday, Dillon
RV Rocky Mountain College 60, No. 5 Providence 52
GREAT FALLS -- Winifred graduate Isabelle Heggem scored six of Rocky's final 10 points and Fresno State transfer Sydney Dethman poured in a game-high 20 points for the Battlin' Bears' second-straight top-25/receiving votes victory to tip off conference play.
Rocky led Providence by two points entering the fourth, but needed back-to-back Heggem buckets to take a four-point advantage with under four minutes to play. Trailing by six, the Argos missed a pair of buckets, then allowed Heggem the dagger in a defensive struggle.
Neither team scored in the final minutes and Providence was held to 35.1% (20-for-57) shooting.
Rocky (10-5, 2-0 Frontier) was outrebounded 11-5 on the offensive glass, but maintained a plus-seven edge in points off turnovers and a slim 28-26 advantage in the paint.
Freshman Paige Wasson scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds. Gracee Lekvold chipped in seven points and a game-high seven assists. Iliana Moran added five assists and six points on 3-for-7 shooting.
Ashlee Maldonado paced Providence (9-4, 0-2 Frontier) with 18 points, completing her first double-double of the season with 12 boards. Keanna Salave'a scored 11 second-half points and totaled 16, while Taliah Lee contributed eight and four rebounds.
Rocky, after beginning conference play 0-5 a season ago, won its first two Frontier contests for the first time since 2022-23. Providence lost just four league games last season on its way to a tournament title, but is now 0-2 for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign.
Up next (RMC): Montana State-Northern, Saturday, Havre
Up next (UP): Montana Western, Saturday, Dillon
RV Montana Tech 65, Montana State-Northern 55
BUTTE -- The Orediggers led Northern by 22 points at halftime not quite a week after falling to Rocky by 21. Entering play pacing the Frontier in scoring defense, Tech held the Skylights to their own season average on 32.7% (18 for 55) from the field.
Hadley Humphreys, a Utah State Eastern transfer, shook off her rough Frontier debut to bury three triples and pace Tech (10-5, 1-1 Frontier) with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Aubrie Rademacher scored nine and grabbed six boards, while Brooklynn Hankwitz and Liv Wangerin each chipped in eight points and five rebounds.
Tech led by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter, but Northern closed on a 21-7 run.
Harlem's Taya Trottier scored eight of those points and tallied 13 on Thursday. She grabbed six rebounds and dished out a game-high eight assists to accompany two steals.
Canzas HisBadHorse scored a dozen, pulled down four boards, and blocked three shots.
Katelynn Forner scored seven points and McKenzie Long knocked down two 3-pointers in 26 games minutes off the bench.
Tech held plus-eight (13-5) and plus-10 (30-20) advantages on second-chance and points in the paint, respectively.
Up next (Tech): No. 21 Carroll College, Saturday, Butte
Up next (MSUN): RV Rocky Mountain College, Saturday, Havre
Men's BasketballMontana Western 78, Carroll College 69
DILLON -- Kyle Gruhler, a Portland Community College transfer, scored 20 of Western's final 37 points Thursday, nearly single-handedly staving off the Saints in the second en route to a season-best 32 points on 13-for-16 shooting.
In a three-point contest with five minutes to play, Gruhler, a first-year Bulldog, connected on back-to-back jump shots, converting a three-point with the second.
Carroll (5-10, 0-2 Frontier) never pulled closer than six points following Gruhler's heroics.
The Saints led Western by as many as 13 points in the first half, but trailed by one at the break. Western used a 12-0 second-half run to take a 10-point advantage, but a near-equal Carroll run pulled the game back into a deadlock at the 10:49 mark.
The Bulldogs outscored Carroll 28-19 from that point, shooting 60% (15-for-25) from the field in a 44-point second half.
Abi Adedo scored 16 points and notched eight rebounds. Alan Kane and Kevin Bethel each scored eight while Bulldogs leading scorer Jalyn Stepney chipped in seven on 1-for-7 shooting after missing Western's (10-5, 2-0 Frontier) previous two countable games.
Carroll redshirt freshman Isaiah Crane, with 16 points, cracked double figures for the seventh-straight game. Isaac Round and James Lang each scored 14, and Derek Kramer contributed 10 points and four rebounds.
Western, now 6-0 on its home floor, is 2-0 in league play for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Up next (UMW): Providence, Saturday, Dillon
Up next (CC): No. 6 Montana Tech, Saturday, Butte
RV Rocky Mountain College 75, Providence 71
GREAT FALLS -- The Battlin' Bears (13-2, 2-0 Frontier) trailed by as many as six points in the second half, but received a go-ahead three-point play from Lower Columbia College transfer Carter McCoy and a lead-extending triple from Jesse Owens a minute later.
Owens and double-double machine Jaylon Lee converted free throws with less than 20 seconds to play, propelling Rocky past its 2023-24 win total (12) and within a Frontier victory of matching that mark (3), too.
Owens scored a game-high 18 points to accompany six assists, while Lee contributed a 14-point, 18-rebound double-double, his 10th of the season. Omari Nesbit, a College of the Sequoias transfer, scored 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting to pair with four rebounds and four assists.
Mike Wright Jr. knocked down three triples and led Providence (7-8, 1-1 Frontier) with 16 points.
Antoine Boyd Jr. added 14 points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals, as Jamil Bowles and Nikolajs Atanasovs chipped in 10 points apiece.
Rocky extended its win streak to seven games Thursday, deepening its case for inclusion in next week's NAIA Coaches' Top-25 Poll. For context, the Battlin' Bears didn't capture their second Frontier victory until Jan. 25 a season ago and haven't been 2-0 in league play since Jan. 2, 2014.
Up next (RMC): Montana State-Northern, Saturday, Havre
Up next (UP): Montana Western, Saturday, Dillon
No. 6 Montana Tech 82, Montana State-Northern 56
BUTTE -- Frontier Preseason Player of the Year Michael Ure scored 20 points for the third time this season as the Orediggers overcame their slow start to league play with a 48.4% (31 for 64) effort from the field.
Ifeanyi Okeke, a newly-minted 1,000-point collegiate scorer, poured in 16, eight rebounds and three assists, while Keeley Bake sniped five triples and doled out four assists. Brayden Koch scored nine points. Hayden Diekhans added seven points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots.
Tech led Northern (6-9, 0-2 Frontier) by 16 points at halftime, building a 26-point cushion late in the second half.
The Lights shot 35.6% (21 for 59) and were outrebounded 12-4 on the offensive glass. Tech scored 18 second-chance points to Northern's zero and outpaced the visitors 44-16 in the paint.
Cinque Maxwell scored a team-high 17 points for Northern. Raefe McEnroe added 11 off the bench, and Jack Reardon supplied nine points and two rebounds.
Up next (Tech): Carroll College, Saturday, Butte
Up next (MSUN): RV Rocky Mountain College, Saturday, Havre
Email Daniel Shepard at daniel.shepard@406mtsports.com and find him on X/Twitter @IR_DanielS.
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