Jamie Pickens scored a career-high and Andrew Cook logged his second double-double of the season as Carroll swept Montana Western 77-62 (women) and 81-74 (men) on the road Thursday.
Pickens poured 10 points into a 23-8 Saints second quarter on her way to 32 points, a second 30-plus-point performance this season. Her 13 rebounds extended a double-double streak to six games and was her 13th of the 2023-24 campaign.
Maddie Geritz added 13 points, four rebounds, and three assists, while Willa Albrecht and Kyndall Keller each scored 11 points.
Western’s Shainy Mack knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and totaled a team-high 21 points.
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Jordan Sweeney, the Frontier Conference’s leading scorer entering play, notched 16 points on 5-for-20 shooting.
Freshman Maddy Moy grabbed 10 rebounds to accompany six points.
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Carroll’s seventh-straight victory, paired with Rocky Mountain College’s 58-47 triumph over No. 16-ranked Providence, propelled the Saints (15-3, 6-0 Frontier) two games clear of the Argos in the Frontier standings.
Western (11-8, 3-3 Frontier) slipped into a third-place tie with MSU-Northern.
In the men’s game, Carroll’s Cook posted the seventh 20-plus-point game in his last eight with a game-high 27 points on 10-for-18 shooting, adding 12 rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block.
Carroll (11-8, 5-1 Frontier) is 7-1 in those contests and kept pace with first place Montana Tech (15-4, 5-1 Frontier) on Thursday as the Orediggers beat Northern 89-54 in Butte.
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Kendall Moore scored 15 points for Carroll, Zane Foster chipped in nine, and Shaheed Muhammad and Murat Guzelocak each contributed eight points off the bench.
Carroll redshirt sophomore James Lang did not play on Thursday night with an apparent injury. Freshman Josiah Cuaresma made his first career start instead, compiling two points, four rebounds, and an assist in 16 minutes.
Western’s Jalyn Stepney paced the Bulldogs (9-10, 2-4 Frontier) with 16 points, while Abi Adedo and Jacksen Burckley scored 11 points apiece.
Carroll shot 50.9 percent (29-for-57) from the field for the game and outrebounded Western 41-33 (11-9 on the offensive glass).
Carroll will be back in action on Saturday, in Helena, against Providence. Western travels to Havre to face the Lights and Skylights.
ROUNDUP, Mont. — The Rehder Creek Fire is burning 16 miles southeast of Roundup has grown to about 5,000 acres, prompting evacuation orders for residents in the Bruner Mountain Area/Subdivision.
The fire started Feb. 26, the cause is unknown and containment was at 0%.
Evacuation orders are in effect for all residents in the Bruner Mountain Area/Subdivision. The Musselshell County Sheriff’s Office is coordinating the evacuation orders, and 911 reverse calls have been sent out to advise people in the area.
A shelter is opening at the Roundup Community Center. Residents were told to contact Musselshell County DES for further information.
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Firefighter and public safety remain the top priority. The public is asked to avoid the Fattig Creek and Rehder Road area so emergency personnel can safely and effectively perform their work.
Fire resources assigned to the incident include 40 total personnel, 11 engines, one Type 2 helicopter, three tenders and two dozers.
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) – joined by Representative Pramila Jayapal, the Ranking Member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, and 22 other Members of Congress – sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons calling for the immediate closure of Camp East Montana in El Paso. They cite urgent humanitarian concerns following multiple deaths in custody, documented unsafe conditions, and serious deficiencies in medical care.
This marks the fourth letter Congresswoman Escobar has sent to DHS and ICE leadership. The previous three letters have gone unanswered.
The letter can be found in its entirety below and here.
“Secretary Noem and Acting Director Lyons:
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We are urgently calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or the Department) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to shut down Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas.
Camp East Montana has been operational for six months, and at least three people have died at the site since December 2025: Francisco Gaspar-Andres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, and Victor Manuel Diaz. The El Paso County Medical Examiner has officially ruled Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Camp East Montana was constructed in a matter of weeks and opened before construction was complete and it does not have enough federal staff on-site to provide adequate oversight. Over the last several months, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, in whose district this facility is located, has sent multiple letters to DHS and ICE regarding concerns about the conditions at Camp East Montana, and has received no responses.
According to detainees, there have been constant and consistent problems at the facility since it opened, beginning with the facility’s poor construction and poor ambient temperature control. Upon opening, the drinking water at Camp East Montana tasted foul and made some detainees sick. Detainees continue to be served inadequate meals, including food that is rotten or frozen; last fall, the facility was also consistently failing to make dietary accommodations for detainees. Detainees have shared that they have sporadic access to outside spaces and recreational areas, and that their dormitory pods are cleaned only once every eight days, despite pods housing up to 72 people at a time. Laundry services are not consistent, and people are washing their clothes in the facility showers. Additionally, the facility experiences flooding and sewage backups when it rains, leading to stagnant water.
One of the biggest concerns with the Camp East Montana facility is the inadequate medical care being provided to detainees. Our offices have heard that only the most ill detainees are referred to the medical unit and that there are inconsistencies as to how soon after arriving detainees are able to undergo initial medical screenings. Detainees with chronic health issues who rely on regimented medications for their health have had difficulty accessing necessary medications, including blood pressure medication and insulin.
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At least one of the deaths that occurred in ICE custody, the death of Francisco Gaspar-Andres, appears to partially be the result of poor medical care by staff at the facility. According to ICE’s own account, Gaspar-Andres sought medical attention from facility staff for increasingly serious symptoms, but was only transferred to an area hospital once his condition had severely deteriorated.
In addition to our concerns about poor medical care, we are also aware that detainees have experienced irregular access to their legal counsel, including instances of detainees having only two minutes allotted per phone call every 8 days, which is contrary to ICE’s Detention Standards on access to counsel, and that the belatedly created law library lacks adequate resources for the amount of people currently held at the facility. In January 2026, ICE announced the on-site death of Geraldo Lunas Campos “after experiencing medical distress.” ICE opened an investigation into the death, but did not provide a cause of death. However, The Washington Post later reported that another man detained at Camp East Montana had witnessed guards choking Lunas Campos when he refused to enter a segregated housing unit. Weeks later, the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled that Lunas Campos had experienced “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression” and ruled his death a homicide.
Lunas Campos is the first detainee to die at Camp East Montana as a result of a use-of-force incident, but we are strongly concerned that he will not be the last if ICE is allowed to continue operating Camp East Montana.
ICE was given $45 billion in taxpayer dollars in the reconciliation bill, $1.2 billion of which were awarded to Acquisition Logistics, LLC, a company with no previous experience managing immigration detention facilities, to build and oversee Camp East Montana. However, in the wake of three deaths in custody so far, continued concerns about conditions at the facility, and ICE’s apparent disinterest in responding to oversight letters from Congress, we do not believe Camp East Montana is being run professionally or responsibly.
Camp East Montana must be shut down. For the safety of everyone at the facility, for an end to abuses to detainees, and for fiscal responsibility to the American people, the site cannot continue to operate. We are calling on DHS and ICE to move to immediately close operations at Camp East Montana.
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We look forward to hearing from the Department promptly on this matter.
The other co-signers include Representatives Yassamin Ansari, Nanette Barragán, Yvette Clarke, Lloyd Doggett, Maxwell Frost, Jesús “Chuy” García, Sylvia Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Henry Johnson, Stephen Lynch, Seth Moulton, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delia Ramirez, Andrea Salinas, Janice Schakowsky, Darren Soto, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, Lauren Underwood, Gabe Vasquez, and Nydia Velázquez.
