HELENA, Mont. – Three UGF guards combined for 59 percent of the team's points, as the hot shooting Argos took down Dickinson State University 86-77. Juniors Davone Oliver Jr., Sergio Berkley, and Matthew Brooks-McGregor shot a combined 18-33 from the floor for a combined 51 points.
 
The team hit 48 percent of its shots, including 40 percent from three, but those numbers were even better in UGF's loss to Jamestown the previous night. 
 
Defense was the difference this time around. While the Blue Eagles shot over 50 percent in the game, UGF forced Dickinson into 15 turnovers, 9 of which were directly off Argo steals. That led to 27 points off turnovers for UGF, a significant advantage over DSU's 11.
 
It was Brooks-McGregor and senior forward Isaac Howard who got things started for UGF. The two combined for exactly half of the Argo's 42 half time points, and shot a combined 5-7 from behind the 3-point line.
 
Their scoring, along with another 8 points from senior Sigman Farmer III and team total of 5 steals helped UGF lead DSU for the entirety of the first half, and build as much as a 9-point advantage. The Blue Hawks slimmed that advantage down to 4 before the half ended.
 
If the first half belonged to Brooks-McGregor and Howard, the second half belonged to Oliver and Berkley. Both guards followed up a strong night against Jamestown with another solid performance, scoring 29 combined points in the second half – 15 for Oliver and 14 for Berkley.
 
While both specialized in long range shooting the previous night, it was their ability to drive that worked against Dickinson. All of Berkley's points either came off his four 2-point field goals or from his 6-8 shooting from the free-throw line. Of Oliver's 15, 6 came from 3-pointers while the other 9 came from 2-pointers or free throws.
 
Thanks to their driving ability, UGF vastly improved its scoring in the lane with 44 points in the paint to just 22 against the Jimmies.
 
Just as in the first half, UGF wire to wire in the second half. The Blue Hawks pulled within 1 point with just under 12 and a half minutes to go, but 5 straight points from Brooks-McGregor brought that lead back to a more comfortable 6.
 
Oliver finished as UGF's leading scorer for the second time this season, scoring 18 points and adding 2 assists. Closely following was Brooks-McGregor with 17 points, 3 assists and 3 steals off an efficient 7-10 shooting from the field.
 
On day after scoring a career high 19 points, Berkley scored 16 points, and set season highs with 5 assists, and 4 steals.
 
All 11 of Howard's points came in the first half while 8 of Farmer's 10 came in the that same span of time.
 
UGF improves its record to 4-1 with the win. Next on the schedule will be another Friday-Saturday slate of neutral site games, starting with Salish Kootenai College on November 25 in Havre, Mont.