With about eight minutes left in the first half of the exhibition basketball game between the Carroll College men and the Blue Angels Friday night, a man in the stands of the Carroll P.E. center yelled at Angels’ guard J.R. Camel:

“Hey, No. 32! How old are you?”

Camel looked up, smiled and held up four fingers and a fist.

Forty.

“All right, I can respect that,” the man replied.

In a game that felt more like street ball or a pick-up between old friends, the Saints (4-0) dominated the Blue Angels, an all-star group of former collegiate players from Montana and Washington, 106-88.

“It’s definitely a different atmosphere, obviously,” said Saints head coach Gary Turcott. “We’re going to have to come out intense tomorrow.”

The Saints, and the fans, seemed content to let the visiting squad work their way to the basket, and for the first half the Blue Angels stuck with them, trailing 49-41 at the half.

But, after scoring just two points in the first half as the Saints bench made their way onto the floor, freshman Andy Garland lit up the scoreboard with 18 total points and nine rebounds as Carroll picked up steam and the Blue Angels simply ran out of it.

Five other Saints scored in double digits as Scott Stockwell followed up with 15 points and six assists.

“It was good experience, we got to play all our guys,” Turcott said. “And we really needed to, some of the guys hadn’t played much time in a game.”

Former Rocky Mountain College starter and all-Frontier Conference guard Eli Swan led the Blue Angels with 21 points, hitting 5 of 11 3-pointers. Montana State great Pete Conway chipped in 20 points and Camel, a former University of Montana player, added 14.

The game was the second of the Mountain West Bank Classic. Rocky beat Dixie State University, an NCAA Division II team, 78-75 to start the night.

The Saints face Dixie State tonight at 8 p.m. after Rocky and the Blue Angels square off at 6 p.m.

“You’d better believe Dixie’s going to come out mad after that loss,” Turcott said.

For box scores see page 2B.

Assistant Sports Editor

Jeff Windmueller: 447-4065 or jeff.windmueller@helenair.com