By MT Tech Sports Information
BUTTE, Mont. – No. 12 Montana Tech got the upper hand on their home court and settled the season series with Montana Western with an 86-61 victory.
The Orediggers finish the conference series up 2-1 against the Bulldogs (8-16, 3-8) while handing them their sixth straight loss.
Western opened the game hitting two threes from Tanner Haverfield and Ky Kouba to take a 6-5 lead after two minutes into the game.
Michael Ure hit a layup, scoring Tech’s first seven points, putting Tech up 7-6. The Orediggers held the lead for the remainder of the half. Tech led by as many as 14 before the break and took a 37-29 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Ure finished with nine points and five rebounds in the first half.
Caleb Bellach dropped 14 going 5 for 8 from the field and 2 for 3 from beyond the arc. The Orediggers shot 46.9% from the field.
The Bulldogs went 4 for 14 from long in the first and shot 38.7% from the field.
But the Bulldogs came out firing in the second half opening with an 11-2 run in the opening minutes. Haverfield hit a pair of threes and Kouba hit another as the pair combined for all 11 points for the Bulldogs as they grabbed their first lead since the opening minutes 40-39.
That would be the last lead for the Bulldogs all night as Tech rattled off the next two buckets and went on a 22-7 run over the next seven minutes. Asa Williams highlighted the run with three deep balls as Tech went 4 for 6 from three-point range during that span.
Williams scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and finished shooting 8 for 11 from the field and 5 of 6 from beyond the arc.
Tech finished the half outscoring Western 49-32 and shooting 48.7% from the field and making 9 of their 15 three-point attempts.
Bellach finished with 21 points shooting 8 for 15 from the field and 3 for 5 from long. Bellach also had six rebounds.
Ure finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. Ure shot 2 for 5 from deep and 6 of 11 from the field.
Hayden Diekhans had 10 points, three rebounds, and three assists.
Haverfield led the Bulldogs with 17 points going 5 for 9 from beyond the arc and finished with five rebounds. Kouba had 10 points and five boards.
Hacob Ankeny had 12 points off the bench. He lead the team with seven rebounds and two blocks.
Tech (20-4, 8-3) moves to the top in the Frontier Conference standings with the University of Providence losing 93-75 at Rocky Mountain tonight.
The Orediggers host Rocky this Saturday on Kelvin Sampson Court at 4 p.m.
