Box Score
Harvre, MT-The Belhaven women's basketball team opened up play in the Duck Inn Corporation Classic, hosted by Montana State Northern-University, falling to Carroll College 66-56 Tuesday night. The Fighting Saints entered the game ranked 24th in the latest NAIA Division I Top 25 poll. The Lady Blazers lost for just the second time this season and now stand at 7-2. Carroll improves to 8-5 overall in the 2008-2009 season.

Belhaven started out on fire building a 9-2 advantage three minutes into the game, forcing the Fighting Saints to call an early timeout. Out of the break, Carroll went on a mini 4-0 run to get within three points at 9-6. The Lady Blazers then countered with an 8-0 run to take an 11 point lead with 14:02 to go in the first half. Carroll was then able to trim the lead to seven by scoring four straight points to get back within single digits.

Belhaven responded quickly again reeling off an 8-2 run to build their largest lead of the game, 25-12 with 7:32 to go in the opening period. However, over the final minutes of the half, Carroll turned the tables on the Lady Blazers and grabbed the momentum by outscoring Belhaven 23-7 to take a 34-32 lead at halftime.

Unfortunately for the Lady Blazers, Carroll came out of the locker room and picked up where they left off at the end of the first half. The Fighting Saints went on a 12-2 run in the first nine minutes of the second half expanding their two point lead to a 46-34 advantage. Kimberley Ward then ended the run with an offensive rebound and put back to cut the Carroll lead back to ten with 10:57 to play in the game. Ward then sunk two free throws and Belhaven found themselves down by only eight points with 9:25 to play. Eight points would be the closest Belhaven would get to the lead the rest of the way as Carroll College maintained a comfortable lead over the final nine plus minutes to secure the win 66-56.

The Lady Blazers were led by Kimberly Ward with 13 points and four rebounds. Mallory Hammack and Holly Dial each added 10 points for Belhaven in Tuesday nights matchup. As a team, the Lady Blazers hit 44 percent of their shots from the field but struggled somewhat from the free throw line going 16-28 for a percentage of 57 percent. Both teams had difficulty hanging onto the ball as Belhaven committed 24 miscues with Carroll coughing it up 25 times. However, Carroll ended up scoring 19 points off of turnovers compared to just 13 for the Lady Blazers.

The Fighting Saints had a big offensive night from Elly Bruursema as she scored a game high of 25 points. Bruursema went 7-13 from the field and tossed in 11 of her 16 free throw attempts. Nicole Leibach added 10 points for Carroll and was the only other double digit scorer. The Fighting Saints were solid from the field connecting on 50 percent of their shots and also converted 22 of 33 free throw attempts.

Belhaven hits the court again Wednesday night in a matchup with the tournament host school Montana State University-Northern. The game is slated to get underway at 7 PM.