Five players combined to hit six 3-pointers in the first eight minutes as Carroll College came out blazing hot to knock off Frontier Conference foe Rocky Mountain College 79-58.

The Fighting Saints, now 10-2 in the league and 22-3 overall, made nine treys in the first half building a 30-11 lead at one point before cooling off.

“In the first half, offensively, we were making the extra pass and got everybody involved,” Carroll coach Shawn Nelson said of his team’s effort. “We had several chances to really blow the game open, but made a few turnovers and Rocky would go on a run.”

The Bears (11-17, 4-8) outscored Carroll 11-2 to cut the lead to 32-22, but the Saints answered right back with a 9-1 run to build the lead back to 41-23.

Caitlin Courchaine capped off that run by making a pretty pass to Jolene Fuzesy, who was cutting to the basket, scored and drew the foul.

“On this team anyone can step up,” Courchaine said. “It’s easy to pass to everyone on our team. You don’t have to think twice about it. I have confidence that if someone is open they can knock it down.”

Courchaine finished with seven assists and just one turnover.

RMC scored the final eight points of the half to stay in the game.

Carroll pulled away early in the second half and laid it on heavy later. The Saints eased out to a 15-point lead when Nikki Mills scored underneath the hoop.

A few minutes later the Saints started draining 3-balls again as Fuzesy hit a pair, Laci High hit one and Danielle Maloney another. Fuzesy’s second three of the grouping made it 68-49 with 5:12 to play.

Fuzesy was hot even for her standards. She connected on seven of eight bombs and had one waved off for traveling. She finished with 30 points on 10-of-14 shooting overall and three of three on free throws.

Laci High had another impressive game, scoring 12 points and Danielle Maloney scored 10 off the bench. Four other Saints had six points or more.

“That was another big game for Laci,” Nelson said. “Back-to-back double-figure nights is huge for us. We’ll need her down the stretch.

“Our bench did some good things for us tonight. Nikki Mills is getting better each game.”

The 58 points allowed was deceiving in Nelson’s mind.

“Our pressure defense was good, but we gave up a lot of points in the paint,” he said. “We held them to 58, but it doesn’t seem like it when they score a lot of layups.”

Rocky’s Josie Evans, who played her prep career at Townsend, scored 14 points and pulled down six rebounds. Emmeli Lundgren led the Bears with 17 points.

Notes: Fuzesy now has 450 3-pointers. The NAIA researched its women’s 3-point records this past week and determined that Kiely Schork of Loyola University (La.) made 467 treys in her career.

Schork shot 1,382 times from behind the arc making 33.8 percent. The NCAA record is 392.

Rocky - Gretchen Wall 4-7 0-0 9, Josie Evans 6-12 2-3 14, Emmelie Lundgren 8-10 1-4 17, Sarah Madinger 0-2 4-5 4, Liz Lewis 1-6 0-0 2, Shaylynn Conroy 1-4 1-2 3, Jennifer Orchard 0-0 0-0 0, Lisa Schoer 1-2 1-2 3, Jenna Sawyer 3-8 0-0 6. Totals: 24-51 9-16 58.

Carroll - Hannah Heidenreich 3-6 1-1 7, Tiffany Rochelle 1-2 0-0 2, Laci High 5-10 0-0 12, Caitlin Courchain 2-5 1-2 6, Jolene Fuzesy 10-14 3-3 30, Elly Bruursema 2-6 0-0 6, Nikki Mills 3-4 0-0 6, Danille Maloney 3-10 1-3 10, Nicole Leibach 0-2 0-0 0, Sara Meyer 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 29-61 6-9 79.

Halftime - CC 41, RMC 31. Three point field goals - RMC 1-5 (Wall 1-2, Lewis 0-3), CC 15-30 (Fuzesy 7-8, Maloney 3-9, Bruursema 2-4, High 2-5, Courchaine 1-3, Leibach 0-1). Rebounds - RMC 32 (Evans 6, Wall 5, Madinger 5), CC 29 (Rochelle 6, Heidenreich 5, Fuzesy 5, Mills 5). Assists - RMC 10 (Madinger 3), CC 19 (Courchaine 7, Fuzesy 4). Turnovers - RMC 24, CC 19. Fouls - RMC 15, CC 18. Fouled out - Rochelle.

Reporter Tom Stuber: 447-4070 or irsports@helenair.com