BUTTE, Mont. – Jarred Burr only scored three points, but without that one shot, the University of Great Falls would've lost to Montana Tech. Burr hit a buzzer beater from 3-point range to put UGF ahead of the Orediggers 61-60. 
 
Three straight 3-pointers from junior Jared Schultz in the final three minutes got UGF close. His final three with 38.7 seconds left pulled the Argos within two, but UGF would need a stop to get a game tying or winning bucket.
 
UGF tried to force a turnover with a full court press, but the Orediggers successfully broke it and got into the half court. With about a 4 second differential between the play clock and the shot clock, UGF decided not to foul, but instead hope for a missed shot and a rebound.
 
That looked unlikely when Tech's Chris O'Neill successfully drove the lane and dumped a pass to a cutting Flemming Okeke for what looked like an easy layup that would've sealed the game. That's when Burr made his first clutch play. The sophomore guard left his man at the 3-point arch and streaked in to strip the ball from Okeke, and coming away with it with 12 second left on the clock.
 
"We had already talked in the timeout before that we weren't going to call a timeout, that we were going to push it and try to get a trail guy open for the win," UGF Head Coach Anthony Owens said.
 
Burr followed those instructions and found the perfect man trailing behind him for the shot, the red-hot Schultz.
 
"I knew Jared had just hit 2 or 3 threes, so I saw him trailing me and I thought his was good," Burr said of the final play.
 
The only problem was, Schultz's shot wasn't good.
 
"We all crashed the boards, and I knew we needed the ball. I saw Treyvon got the rebound and I just scooted back and knew it was coming to me," Burr said. "I just shot it like I do when I shoot on the gun in the gym."
 
The shot went down. The buzzer sounded. The bench erupted. The Argos won.
 
Not only did the shot give UGF a 61-60 advantage in the final score, but the resulting win helped UGF turn what could've been a rough opening weekend of Frontier Conference play into overall positive. The game was the second of the conference season, and the first was a loss to Lewis-Clark State College two days earlier.
 
"Any time you take one of those conference road trips if you can at least get a split, it's nice. We wanted to come out with two, but road wins in league play is huge," Owens said. "The split keeps us in the mix and it'll help us in the long run."
 
Overall, the game was a tale of two halves. The first was a defensive battle with both teams making about a third of their shots and each only hitting on two 3-point field goals. It was a different story in the second half.
 
Over the course of the final 20 minutes, UGF hit on exactly 50 percent of its shots, but the Orediggers were even better, shooting 56 percent. Most of Tech's points came by way of drives, post play, and free throws, accounting for a 38-28 advantage in the paint. UGF's offense on the other hand, relied largely on turnovers and long range shooting.
 
The Argos scored 18 points off turnovers and 9 points on fastbreaks, to Tech's 11 and 4. UGF also made 8-13 shots from three in the second half.
 
Outside of one free throw from junior Tymarieh Dixon, all of UGF's 19 final points came off 3-pointers, with UGF connecting on 6 of them to close the game. In order, one of them came from junior Sergio Berkley, another from senior Isaac Howard, then came Shultz three, and then final Burr's game winner.
 
Outside of the Jarred and Jared show in the final few minutes, it was Howard and Berkley that led UGF offensively. Howard finished with a team leading 12 points, while Berkley scored 10 off the bench. Dixon and senior center Andrej Slavik each scored 8 points and the two combined to account for 12 of UGF's 30 total rebounds.
 
Schultz finished the game with 11 points and led the team with 4 assists. Burr scored just those three crucial points, but also contributed 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in 13 minutes on the floor.
 
UGF record now goes to 7-2 (1-1) on the year. Next up for the Argos are three straight road exhibition games against NCAA Division I opponents, starting with a December 6 match up against Utah State University at 7 p.m.