Box Score Gallery

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings Men's Basketball team picked up their first win of the season with a 65-60 win over Carroll College on Saturday during the Yellowstone Bank & Billings Hotel Basketball Classic.

The Jackets were led by three players in double figures; Jonathan Mesghna had a team high 19 points and seven rebounds, followed by 16 points from Connor Donaldson and 13 points from Austin Hudson who also had seven rebounds. Kalob Hatcher had a game high four assists to go with six points and two steals. Marc Matthews had a team high eight rebounds to go with six points on 2-6 from behind the three point line.

The Saints were led yet again by Dennis Mikelonis, who followed up last night's 18 point game versus Colorado School of Mines, to lead all scorers with 21 points and 11 rebounds against the Jackets. Jake Hollifeld scored 15 points to go with 4 rebounds and two steals for the Saints.

The Jackets would open the game with a 12-2 run, only to have Carroll go on 15-4 run to take the led 17-16 eleven m minutes into the game. From there neither team was able to stretch the led to more than four points and the half would end with the Jackets taking a three point lead, 31-28 into halftime behind Donaldson's 11 points and Mesghan's 10 points. It was a physical first half with a total of 23 fouls.

The Jackets would open the second half with a 7-2 run to take their biggest lead of the night, 37-30. The Saints battled back to bring it within one after a pair of free throws from Mikelonis to make it 51-50 with four minutes left in the game. That would be the closest the Saints would get as the Jackets would go 8-9 from the charity stripe in the last four minutes and stave off the Saints comeback efforts.

"The guys did a nice job of pulling it out," said Head Coach Jamie Stevens. "We jumped on them early and then felt like we struggled to score the rest of the night. We were fortunate to come out on top. Still fiddling around with rotations and it's a long season we have a long ways to go but hopefully will have a great week of practice and get ready for our next two games. "

Both teams scored 18 points in the paint; the Jackets would slightly nudge out the Saints on second chance points 9-7 but the Saint bench had the bigger impact outscoring the Jackets bench 30-9. The Jackets are now 1-1 on the young season and Carroll drops to 1-4.

The Saints shot 34.5% % from the field to go with 30.3% from beyond the Arc and 85.0% from the free throw line. The Jackets 37.7% from the field, 28.0% from three point range and 78.3% from the free throw line.

The Jackets next travel to South Dakota for match ups against South Dakota School of Mines on Nov. 14th and Black Hills State on Nov. 16th.

The first game of the Yellowstone Bank and Billings hotel classic saw Colorado School of Mines defeat the University of Montana Western 88-59. Mines was able to run away from Western on the back of a great team performence. Trevor Wages was key as he recorded 12 points, 13 rebounds, two steals, two blocks and two assists. Maazin Butler scored a team high 17 points for Western.