SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster men's basketball team fell to Carroll (Mont.), 67-65, in the Frontier Conference opener for both teams on Thursday night in the Behnken Field House.
 
Westminster (7-7, 0-1 Frontier) entered the game on a five-game winning streak and they opened the game with the first five points. After Carroll (12-3, 1-0) tied the game at 13-13 with 11:29 on the clock, the Griffins mounted a 14-2 run over the next 3:54 of action. The lead would reach its largest of the night with 3:58 left in the half when Colton Moon buried his fourth triple of the night to make it 37-22.
 
After Carroll closed the half with a 7-2 spurt, they extended it to a 17-6 run and had the deficit to 43-39 with just under 15 minutes remaining. Quincy Bair made a three that put the Griffins ahead 50-43 two minutes later before the visitors scored 19 of the game's next 26 points to possess a 62-57 lead with 3:55 on the clock.
 
Nick Jenson found a layup at the 2:03 mark and then Moon hit his sixth three of the game with 1:34 to play to tie the game at 65-65. After each team came up empty on their next possessions, Carroll's Zach Taylor sunk a fade-away 15-footer with 0.4 on the clock to win it for Carroll.
 
Westminster finished the game shooting 44.7 percent from the floor and they went 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from beyond the arc. They allowed Carroll to shoot 52.6 percent from the field and gave up 48 points in the paint. The Griffins scored 15 points from 14 Carroll turnovers, but only force five turns in the second half.
 
Moon would finish the game with a season-high 18 points and his six threes were one of his career-best. The senior also tallied two steals in the loss. Bair added 12 points, but shot just 3-of-9 from the floor with two rebounds and two assists.
 
Taylor led Carroll with 16 points and he scored 14 in the second half. Oliver Carr finished with 13 points and Jake Hollifield went for 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
The Griffins will now turn their attention to a Saturday contest with No. 18 Rocky Mountain (Mont.) at 7:30 p.m. MT in the Behnken Field House.