Before the Carroll College men’s basketball game against Montana State-Northern, Saints coach Gary Turcott wondered just a little bit about the emotional status of his team.

“Before the game, the locker room was really quiet and I said ‘are we flat or focused’ and my assistant coaches said ‘focused,’” he said.

Carroll assistant coaches Brandon Veltri and Steve Keller turned out to be correct and Turcott shouldn’t have worried as his team dominated the Lights 87-63, avenging one of their two losses in Frontier Conference play.

Carroll (21-3, 8-2) got a superlative effort from Sinan Guler who scored 23 points, had eight rebounds and seven steals.

He also drew Northern’s (16-10, 5-5) high-scoring Jordan Matthews as his defensive assignment for much of the night. Matthews burned Carroll for 29 points, the first time the two teams met. He was held to seven on Thursday.

“Sinan had one of his best all around efforts since he has been here — especially defensively,” Turcott said. “He dominated the game in the second half with his defense.”

Guler scored 19 points in the second half and many of those came in transition after he picked off a steal. He electrified the crowd several times running the floor well and finishing with either a layup or a dunk.

Guler’s effort was part of a Saints offensive attack that did a complete 180 degree turnaround from the team’s meeting earlier this season in Havre.

The Lights likes to pressure in the half court and run man-to-man defense. They held the Saints to 33 percent shooting in the game. This time around, the Saints shot 60 percent from the field.

“After Westminster we simplified our offense,” Guler said. “Then we played LC (Lewis-Clark State) and added a couple of things to it and it has worked pretty good.”

Turcott said that his playbook has gotten a little lighter over the past few weeks.

“We are running less stuff,” he said. “We are running fewer sets and running our motion better. We are making our motion less predictable and letting the kids settle in and get comfortable in the offense.

The Saints had their way most of the night offensively and they pulled away from the Lights over the final four minutes of the first half.

After the Lights had pulled within one, 28-27, Carroll got back-to-back 3-point shots from Jeff Hays to open up a 34-29 advantage with 2:56 left in the half.

Hays was 5-of-6 from 3-point land in the first half. He finished with 22 points and 6-of-8 from beyond the arc in the game.

Travis Williams drained back-to-back treys in the waning moments of the half and Guler slammed home a dunk with 30 seconds left to finish off a 14-6 run.

“My offensive role is to bring energy to the team,” he said. “In the first half, I made some simple mistakes, but before the second half, I was in the lockerroom thinking about how I could bring energy to the team.

Carroll led 42-35 at halftime.

That lead quickly increased in the second half as the Saints confused the Lights by alternating between man and zone defensive schemes. Guler clamped down on Matthews, who had his first offensive points at the 9:30 mark in the second half.

Carroll edged out to a 67-55 lead with six minutes left in the game and outscored the lights 20-8 down the stretch to seal the win.

The Saints have a half-game lead over Westminster in the Frontier Conference standings. The Griffins will face Lewis-Clark State Saturday in Lewiston, Idaho.

Carroll will finish the weekend by entertaining the University of Great Falls Saturday at the Carroll P.E. Center at 8 p.m.

MSU-Northern — Marcus Wilson 3-5 0-1 6; Yanif Ducreay 5-6 0-2 10; Jordan Matthews 2-7 2-2 7; Cory Brothers 0-1 2-2 2; Brian Erikson 1-1 0-0 2; Nick Hittner 0-0 2-2 2; Leo Bullchild 2-5 0-0 5; Reid Stovall 2-3 0-0 4; Cody Gillespie 2-3 3-4 9; Ronnie Simpson 6-9 1-1 14; Pathe Yatera 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 23-40 12-16 63.

Carroll College — Travis Williams 5-8 4-5 16; Jeff Hays 7-10 2-2 22; Ross Gufatson 5-6 0-0 10; Kurt Paulson 2-4 1-2 7; Sinan Guler 7-14 7-10 23; Zachary Pitts 1-1 0-0 2; Dallas Leslie 0-3 0-0 0; Gage Brumwell 1-1 0-0 2; Chris Kaschmitter 2-3 0-0 4; Brian Harrison 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 30-50 15-21 87.

3-point shots: MSU-Northern 5 (Matthews, Bullchild, Gillesplie 2, Simpson). Carroll 12 (Williams 2, Hays 6, Paulson 2, Guler 2).

Rebounds — MSU-NOrthern 21 (Ducreay 3, Matthews 3, Brothers 3). Carroll 21 (Guler 8). Total fouls: MSU-Northern 14, Carroll 16. Fouled out: None. Technical foul: MSU-Northern coach Huse.