GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Parker Esary hit a pair of free throws with one-second left in double-overtime to give the #19 University of Providence women's basketball team a 93-92 win over #7 Carroll College Thursday night in the McLaughlin Center.

The win gives the Argos (25-5, 12-3) a share of the Frontier Conference Regular Season Championship, the first regular season championship the team has earned since the 1980-81 season. The team is co-champions alongside Rocky Mountain College, who also finished with a 12-3 conference record. The Argos also recorded their 25^th win of the season in the victory, the most wins by a team in program history.

"That was exhilarating," head coach Bill Himmelberg. "That's the best basketball game that I've ever been apart of. And it was for the championship. Both teams showed championship-caliber effort. I'm just so proud of kids and the resiliency we had to make plays down the stretch. You have to give Carroll a lot of credit. That was a heck of a job by them. Tonight we just came out with one more basket. We were very fortunate."

Esary was unstoppable from the get-go, scoring 15 points in the first quarter on a perfect six-for-six from the field to give the Argos a 23-10 after the first ten minutes. The Fighting Saints (23-6, 11-4) inched back, cutting the lead to nine at halftime and four going into the final quarter.

The Saints took the lead for the first time in the game with 5:08 left in the fourth and extended it to four with 2:37 left. But two three-point plays by the Argos on ensuing possessions allowed them to recapture the lead and make it 71-70 with 26 seconds left. After a missed Carroll jumper, Brooklyn Harn got fouled and sank two free throws to extend the lead to three but Danielle Wagner came down and hit a three-pointer with 10 seconds left to go, sending the game into overtime.

The two teams traded leads throughout the first overtime, with no team gaining much ground over the other. Down one with 23 seconds left, Esary hit a layup off the feed from Maldonado to give the Argos an 83-82 lead. A missed Carroll layup on the other end led to two free throws for Esary, who hit both to extend the lead to three with 16 seconds left. However Sienna Swannack hit a stepback bank three-pointer over Esary to tie it up, sending the game to a second overtime.

The Saints jumped out to another early lead in the second overtime period, taking a three-point lead early. The Argos stormed back yet again, with Maldonado and Esary drawing fouls and getting to the line to keep the team in the game. The Argos found themselves down one-point with eight seconds left after the Saints missed two free throws attempts. Himmelberg called a play for Esary, who got fouled and converted both free throws to give the team the win.

"We got down early in both overtimes," Himmelberg said. "We just came overcame it and decided to come back and fight. I'm just so proud of them. It speaks for the kind of kids we have and the character that they had to get through that."

Esary recorded a career-high 39 points in the win, shooting 13-of-15 from the field and 13-16 from the foul line. She also pulled down 10 rebounds, marking the fifth straight game she's recorded a double-double and her seventh over the last nine games. She also recorded another milestone when she became the program's all-time leading rebounder, passing Lindsey Abramson on the leaderboard in the secord quarter.

"When you need a big game and you need a big person, she steps up," Himmelberg said. "Her and Emilee both step up and made big plays. They're both capable of it and tonight it was Parker. You could tell that nobody was going to stop her tonight."

Maldonado, who played the full 50 minutes, also finished with a double-double, recording 18 points and 10 rebounds. Maddy Dixon finished with 12 points, Harn added 11 and Reed Hazard finished with 10 points and a team-high five assists.

Wagner led the Saints with 22 points on the evening while Jamie Pickens had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Swannack netted 16 points for her squad while Jaidyn Lyman added 14 points off the bench. Christine Denny chipped in 10 points.

The game marks the end of the regular season for the Argos as their shift now focuses to the Frontier Conference women's postseason basketball tournament. The Battlin' Bears own the tiebreak over the Argos, which makes the Argos a two-seed in the field. They will play the lowest remaining seed of the two first round games in the semifinals of the tournament on Saturday, Feb. 26 in the McLaughlin Center.

"One of the goals I set for myself when I became the head coach was to win a Frontier regular season," Himmelberg said. "It was pretty special. We got the tournament championship a few seasons ago and now we got this one. We think we can go on a run. We're continuing to get better and better. I'm just so proud of our kids."