The Carroll College basketball teams begin their final road push before the end of the conference season when they head to Rocky Mountain College tonight in Billings.

The Saints women will play at 6 p.m. followed by the men at 8 p.m.

Carroll will stay on the road when they visit Lewis-Clark State and Westminster next weekend before their final games at home with the University of Great Falls and MSU-Northern the following week.

"The toughest part of the season is right now," said men's head coach Gary Turcott. "But, what I do like about it is we're playing really well. It's the best time for us to take (a road trip)."

The men (17-3 overall, 7-2 Frontier Conference) have won their last three games and positioned themselves in a solid second place in the conference behind Westminster (22-2, 8-1). Northern trails the Saints with a 17-7, 6-3 record.

Carroll's last game was an 88-60 romp over rival Montana Tech. The Saints were one 3-pointer short of tying their game-high school record, hitting 16 in the contest.

They'll need a little luck to hold off a Rocky squad that nearly defeated Carroll on its home court, forcing some late-game heroics to send the game into overtime. The Saints ended up winning 76-73.

"Rocky's foaming at the mouth after that double-overtime loss," Turcott said.

Freshman Andy Garland had a break-out performance in that first matchup, scoring 35 points and pulling down 17 rebounds to lead both squads. Senior guards Chad Vaculin and Josh Saunders added 18 and 12 points, respectively.

All five of Rocky's starters scored in double digits while Chase Sukut led the squad with 21 points. The Saints will also have to zero in on senior post Devin Uskoski, who they held to just 11 points in the game.

The Carroll women will have their hands full in a rubber match to determine the season series with Rocky.

The Saints won the first matchup, a nonconference contest, in overtime 77-73 on Dec. 4.

In their last meeting, Carroll shot a miserable 13 of 54 from the field (24 percent) as the Bears got redemption with a 62-49 win on Jan. 16.

In the two games, Rocky has had four players averaging double figures with Liz Lewis leading the way at 15 points per game.

In preparation for Rocky's scorers, the Saints have continued working on guarding dribble penetration.

"They have a great inside-out game that gets them open looks at 3-pointers," women's head coach Shawn Nelson said. "We want to limit that as much as possible."

Defense was a big factor in last weekend's wins. During Carroll's five-game conference losing streak, the Saints were giving up an average of 73.4 points per game. Last weekend they allowed a stingy 43.5 ppg.

As tournament time creeps closer (three weeks away), the Saints (14-11, 3-6) are looking to improve their tourney position by snagging a game from the Bears to pull within two games of Rocky (12-12, 6-3), which currently resides in fourth place.