On a cold and blustery Friday in what passes for the outskirts of Havre, the Carroll College women's basketball team found themselves stranded at the AmericInn instead of at the Northern Classic tournament.

The day started normally for the Saints, but little did it was about to take a fascinating turn.

As the Saints started their pregame rituals, head coach Shawn Nelson received a call notifying him that their opponent for the day, the University of Alberta-Augustana, had been stuck in Shelby due to snow.

"It was something that I understood," Nelson said. "I was looking outside while on the phone watching the snow fly sideways."

Augustana was stopped in its tracks while trying to navigate the snowy roads.

Concordia, another team in the tourney, was halted in Medicine Hat with the same problem.

"I watched the snow pile up and I got a bad feeling," Nelson said. "We really need to play these games in order to prepare us for the conference season."

The Saints were suddenly and unexpectedly shoved into a day planned with absolutely nothing.

"We were going to go to the gym, but then our bus broke down," Nelson said.

Carroll improvised.

Teams were organized, and a fun but extremely serious game of Catch Phrase! was started.

"It was something to take our mind off of being stuck at the hotel," Nelson said. "Then my assistant coach had to go and make it competitive. As a head coach you have to manage your players and now I guess I have to manage my coaches."

Assistant coach Carly Van Dyke led Team 1 to a commanding 2-1 lead in a best-of-five series.

But experience and motivation took over as Nelson guided Team 2 back to take a 3-2 victory.

"It was tough, but our girls perservered through the adversity. I'm really proud of them," Nelson said, laughing.

Nicole Leibach, Alysha Green, Molly McGree, Shannon Bosley, Shannon Flynn and Haley Pettit all celebrated the come-from-behind win for Team 1.

"We could've beat them if we played again," Van Dyke grumbled.

Saints relaxed as much as they could in an awkward type of camping at the hotel.

Carroll tried to order pizza for dinner, but the weather had forced both Pizza Hut and Dominoes to close.

Elly Bruursema's parents, Dean and Julee, came to the rescue. Both had cars in which they shuttled the team around the snowed-in town for dinner and a quick stop at Wal-Mart in order to pick up munchies for later that night.

"Without Elly's folks, we would have been screwed," Nelson said.

Murphy's Irish Pub opened specially for the team, knowing that all the other restaruants in town had closed for the day.

The Saints will get to play a rare double-header today at noon against Augustana and at 4 p.m. against Concordia.

"I'm really worried about fatigue. We never play two games on the same day, but the girls are looking forward to it, " Nelson said.

The double-header will provide some much-needed experience for the youthful Saints.

"I think it will be good for us to play twice in a row. It will help us further down the line during conference season," Nelson said. "Plus I don't think Carly can take another loss at Catch Phrase!"