GREAT FALLS, Mont. – An inability to finish close games continues to plague Argo basketball. UGF had the lead with two minutes remaining in the game, but couldn't make enough plays after that, losing to Lewis-Clark State College 82-78. The game had 18 lead changes, 11 tie scores, and each team's largest lead was 7 points.
For the first 20 minutes of play, there was almost no defense to found. In the first six possessions, the two teams traded baskets with the first missed shot of the game not coming till the 17:44 mark. The track meet continued after that, with both teams pretty much on pace to score 100 points has the score hit 26-23 UGF after 10 minutes of play.
UGF's junior guard Matthew Brooks-McGregor and senior forward Isaac Howard were on fire early in the first half. Howard went 3-3 from 3-point range, while Brooks-McGregor score 7 points of his own through 10 minutes. They were matched on the other end by LC State's Isaiah Omamogho who went 4-6 from three in the first half.
After his opening salvo, Howard only took one more shot for the rest of the half, and instead the team turned to its attention to the paint where senior guard Sigman Farmer III became the team's primary scorer, finishing the half with 8 points and a team leading 3 rebounds.
The same was true for the Warriors, who turned to forward Zavon Jackson once Omamogho cooled off. Jackson was a perfect 4-4 from the field with 10 points in the first half. Thanks in part to Jackson, the Warriors made 56 percent of their shorts in the period, though UGF wasn't too far behind, shooting 48 percent.
Based on the shooting numbers, the Argos should have run through the Warriors in the second half. The Argos shot 61 percent from the floor in the final period of play and held Lewis-Clark State to 34 percent, but turnovers and other miscues meant UGF only won the second half 40-38.
UGF turned the ball over 10 times in the final 20 minutes, and sent the Warriors to the free-throw line 17 times. An injury to Farmer also impacted the game. The senior played just 7 minutes in the second half after taking a hard fall after being accidentally undercut while going up for a layup.
That layup was good and earned an and-1. That made bucket gave UGF a 58-57 lead with 11:19 to go and the ensuing free throw, which was made by junior Treyvon Bashir in Farmer's absence, increased that lead to two points.
Farmer came back in five minutes later and while he was on the floor the Argos scored twice to go from down one to up three, but he subbed out just over a minute after he came in and never returned to the floor.
Carrying the Argos down the stretch was junior guard Jared Schultz. The Montana natives scored 11 points and had 6 assists in the second half. He was the one to score both baskets during Farmer's last minutes on the floor and that lead was the second to last of the night for UGF.
The final lead for the Argos came by way for four straight made free throws for junior guard Sergio Berkley. UGF then turned it over on each of the next three possessions. Those turnovers combined with a missed free throw at the front end of a 1-and-1 for Berkley led to a two-score Warrior lead with a minute and a half to go. By that points, LC State's quality free throw shooting was enough to hang on to the lead.
The strong second half effort from Shultz gave him his first career double-double with 14 points and 10 assists. His 10 assists set a new career high, with his previous high sitting at only 4.
Berkley finished as UGF's leading scorer with 13 points, eight of which came from the charity stripe. Howard and Farmer each finished with 12 points, though the only combined for 7 points in the second half.
Junior forward Treyvon Bashir was one basket away from a double-double. He finished with a team leading 10 rebounds, 8 points, 2 steals, and 2 assists.
The loss brings UGF's record to 10-8 (2-5) on the year which puts the team in sixth place in the seven team Frontier Conference. The team below the Argos will be UGF's next opponents, Montana Tech. The two will square off inside the McLaughlin Center at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 21. When the two teams played in Butte, Montana earlier this year, the Argos won 61-60 on a buzzer-beating three.
