BILLINGS, Mont. – The Battlin' Bears will look to earn their first Frontier Conference win of 2020 on the Fortin Education Center's new gym floor after dropping a pair of conference games last week.
Carroll College, unbeaten in the Frontier, will be a worthy opponent as the Fighting Saints are currently riding a seven game win streak dating back to mid-December.
Carroll College won 2-of-3 games last season including a 84-72 win in Helena during their most recent match-up in February. During that game, Match Burnham had 33 points and six rebounds for the Fighting Saints while
Clayton Ladine led the Battlin' Bears in the scoring column with 17 points and five assists. Carroll College shot 56.6 percent from the field in comparison to 43.1 percent from the Battlin' Bears.
The Battlin' Bears are averaging 80.462 points per game and shooting 42.5 percent from the floor this season. On the other hand, the Saints averaging 82.250 percent per game with a 49.4 field goal percentage this year.
Darius Henderson is averaging a team-high 13.8 points per game in addition to 12.1 from
Sam Vining. Vining scored 11 points with six rebounds in a 87-57 loss against Lewis-Clark on Saturday and which was topped only by his brother,
Lukas Vining, who scored 13.
Apart from averaging 11.5 points per game, Ladine is ranked No. 9 in assists per game nationally with 5.615.
Both Carroll College's Dane Warp and Jovan Sljivancanin each average 19 points per game per game which is tied for third most in the Frontier behind Providence's Zaccheus Darko-Kelly and Montana Tech's Sindou Diallo. Sljivancanin earned the Frontier Conference's Men's Basketball Player of the Week award after averaging 17.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and a steal per game. He shot 52 percent from the field last week.
Rocky will play Carroll College at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Fortin Education Center.