March 15, 2006

Kansas City, Mo. - No. 4 seed Carroll College (Mont.) moved on to the second round with a 68-40 victory against Saint Xavier University (Ill.) Wednesday in the first round of the 69^th Annual Buffalo Funds - NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship.  The 32-team, single-elimination tournament runs March 15-21 at Municipal Auditorium.

Sinan Guler had a game high 20 points and led the Fighting Saints to their first round victory.  Travis Williams was right behind Guler with 15 points.  Jeff Hays had a game high of seven rebounds.  Carroll ended the first half with on 13 of 25 shooting and finished the game 45.8 percent.  The 68-40 victory marks the largest margin of victory for the Fighting Saints at the National Tournament.  Carroll will face Campbellsville University (Ky.) on Friday 9 a.m. CST.  This is Carroll's second straight trip to the second round.

Sophomore Guard Matt Marino led the Cougars with seven points.  Saint Xavier got off to a rough start and couldn't get back on track.  Senior Jabari Saunders showed his leadership skills under the basket with a game high 9 rebounds.  The Cougars finished the game shooting just 6-for-31 from the field.  This was the Cougars eighth appearance at the National Tournament.  Saint Xavier finished their season with a 21-12 record.