GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Senior guard Sergio Berkley scored 25 points in the second half on the way to a  career high  33, as he led the University of Providence to an 86-79 win over Rocky Mountain College in UP's Frontier Conference opener. The win was the first  conference opening  victory for the Argos in the past three years.
 
"Sergio can really score it. I know  that,  he knows that, and the team knows that. His dad was in the stands so I knew he was going to have a good game tonight," Head Coach Anthony Owens said. "Sometimes he gets too excited, but when he takes his time like he did tonight he can be hard to stop."
 
It wasn't a pretty start for the Argos. Rocky got out to an early lead and took advantage of an anemic Argo offense.
 
After only scoring 5 points in the seven and a half minutes, senior guard Matthew Brooks-McGregor made the team second field goal of the game and kick-started a UP run.
 
Led by Brooks-McGregor and some suddenly hot 3-point shooting, the Argos went on a staggering 17-0 run to go ahead 22-16. Of those 17 points, 8 came from Brooks-McGregor while the other 9 came from one three each from senior guard Jared Schultz, senior guard DuShuan Rice, and junior forward D'shea Williams.
 
UP's lead stayed for the next few minutes but Rocky answered with a run of its own and ended the half ahead of the Argos 38-34 at the half.
 
Through the first 20 minutes, UP's top scorers were Berkley and Brooks-McGregor with 8 points each. One of them was about to score a whole lot more.
 
To start the second half, it was UP's post players, not Berkley that started to turn things back in the Argo's direction. Senior forward Steven Daho-Clark scored the first 5 points of the half and then junior forward Deontae Woodbridge and senior forward Treyvon Bashir each scored to put the Argos ahead 44-43.
 
That lead didn't last long with Rocky scoring the next 4 points but that's when Berkley caught fire.
 
From 13:28 to 7:43 the senior scored 20 straight points for UP, including 3 threes and 3 free throws. By the time that streak was broken by a layup from Woodbridge the Argos held a 71-62 lead.
 
At that point, the Battlin' Bears started to put all its defensive efforts towards stopping Berkley. That gave the rest of the team room to operate.
 
The Argos held on to at least a two-score lead for the rest of the half, thanks mainly to made free throws and some good defense. Rocky did get the margin down to 5 twice with under three minutes left, but Rice and Daho-Clark answered each time.
 
Berkley's 33 points bested his previous career high by 10 points and they came in a variety of ways. He went 10-16 from the field, 3-4 from three, and 10-10 from the free-throw line. He also had 6 rebounds in his 25 minutes on the floor.
 
The next leading scorers for UP were Daho-Clark and Rice with 15 and 14 respectively. Daho Clark came 1 rebound shy of a double-double with 9 boards including 5 offensive rebounds.
 
Bashir only scored 3 points but had a big impact on the game, playing great defense and leading the Argos with 10 rebounds and tying for the team lead with 3 assists and 2 steals.
 
The win brings UP's record to 7-3 (1-0) and has the Argos on a three-game win streak. Next, UP will host (T12) Carroll College on Sunday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m.