The Bulldogs fought bravely, bloodied and well in the uniquely difficult conditions of the Frontier Conference women’s playoff final last week in Great Falls.
But they couldn’t quite slay their dragon, even with its Daenerys dismounted to the bench for almost half the battle.
Carroll College gained the Frontier Conference playoff title with a 53-49 triumph over the University of Montana Western in Great Falls last Tuesday, Feb. 28, in Great Falls.
The term “defensive struggle” often gets applied euphemistically to games cluttered by sluggish offensive play. But it aptly and admiringly describes the Frontier final, which offered relentless displays of elite athleticism, usually in the service of defending akin to hand-to-hand combat or aerial dogfights.
How tough was the going last Tuesday between Carroll and Montana Western? The game’s character and the high character of those contesting it may have best been metaphored by a pair of full-speed, head-on collisions between its two stars—Carroll’s Jamie Pickens and UMW’s Brynley Fitzgerald.
How tough is Brynley Fitzgerald? The 5-11-inch guard gave as good as she got—and probably gave better in at least one of the head-ons—despite being outweighed by dozens of pounds by the 6-foot-2-inch Carroll center built like a Frontier defensive end.
The whole Montana Western team played tough, especially on defense, holding Carroll more than a dozen points below its per game average this season.
Circumstances that helped limit Carroll’s scoring in the playoff final gave the Bulldogs their best chance to beat their nemesis for the first time in four tries this season.
Pickens—the Saints’ top player and a two-time All-American—exited the game after just five minutes of the first quarter due to foul trouble. The Helena High product did not return to the floor until the second half.
Western managed to forge a three-point lead in Pickens’ absence. But five minutes and four Pickens’ points after her third-quarter return, Carroll regained the advantage.
The game continued to rock slowly back and forth, like an evenly matched tug of war, for most of the second half. But Carroll scored 10 of the game’s final 15 points to pull itself to victory.
“We just didn’t make enough plays at the end,” said Woolley, whose Bulldogs missed all seven of their shots from deep in the final quarter.
Pickens hit a number of big shots from short distance late, converting four layups in the final frame to score 8 of her game-high 18 points—more than a third of Carroll’s total.
“Holding Carroll to just 53 points—you’d like to think would be enough to win, but it wasn’t that game,” sighed Woolley after his team suffered its 12th loss in a row to Carroll.
With its high-stakes pressure atmosphere where every point counted and came with difficulty, the Frontier Conference playoff final did provide a good preparation for the Western women’s journey to the NAIA national tourney that began yesterday (see story on page 11).
