GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The best 35 minutes of team basketball the Argos have played all year led the team to its fourth conference win of the season, 75-71 over Rocky Mountain College. Five different UGF players scored 9 or more points, and the team's 24 assists was the third highest total for the team in any game this season, and by far the highest in Frontier Conference play.
"The difference tonight was we shared the basketball," UGF Head Coach Anthony Owens. "They relied on each other to score, instead of an individual trying to take over the game."
Three seniors made sure UGF got off on the right foot to start the team's second to last game of the regular season. The first points of game came from a 3-pointer by senior guard Sigman Farmer III and fellow seniors Isaac Howard and John Makkar scored next to put UGF up by three through the first four minutes of play.
UGF held that small lead for a few more minutes, but the four made threes from the Battlin' Bears in just over two minutes, flipped margin 8 points in RMC's favor.
A few strong points in the paint, an area that the Argos would dominate all night, from Makkar and Farmer steadied the ship, and then a made three from junior guard Jared Schultz put UGF on a long-range run of its own.
Three different Argos each sank a shot from distance in the final four and a half minutes to give UGF a 35-29 lead by the end of the first half.
Farmer played his best half of basketball in months after fighting through a series of nagging injuries. The senior scored all 10 of his points in the first period, shooting 4-7 from the field including 2-2 from three. He also pulled down 5 rebounds and had 4 assists in the first half.
He held just a slight lead over Makkar for the most encouraging effort in the half. Makkar shot 3-4 from the field through the first 20 minutes with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block.
While most of Farmer's impact on the game was spent as the team's entered the locker room for their mid-game break, Makkar was far from done. The muscular, 6-8 forward bullied the Battlin' Bears in the paint all night long, while also playing one of the most cerebral games of his career.
"The whole time, Rocky was playing zone, so I was really looking for my teammates first with the skip pass or on the backside. When no one was open I looked for my shot, and luckily I was able to make those," Makkar said.
He, Howard, and freshman guard Quesley-Marie Noresias started UGF on an almost unprecedented offensive effort in the second half. In the first five minutes of the out of the locker room, the three teammates combined for 15 points and 2 steals, and build UGF's lead into double-digits.
By the end of that run, Noresias was one point shy of score 10 or more points for the fifth time on the year, by a hard fall through contact in the paint sent him to the bench for the rest of the night.
His absence didn't slow down the Argos, however with juniors Schultz and Matthew Brooks-McGregor hitting three straight shots for UGF and with 6:22 left in the game, UGF led by 17.
Over the next six and a half minutes, Rocky went on a steady rally. Playing onto the hands of the Battlin' Bears, both literally and figuratively were five UGF turnovers from the 6:22 mark to 2:24 mark. That run of sloppy play narrowed UGF's lead to 8 points and then 5 straight points from RMC's Zach Hinton made it a one score game.
Further aiding Rocky's comeback attempt were two stunning missed free throws on the front end of one-and-ones in the final minute from UGF's Sergio Berkley. The junior ranks 32nd in NAIA Division I in free throw percentage, shooting over 80 percent from the charity stripe on the year.
Despite those missed free throws, UGF's defense just barely held, and finally, with four seconds left, Howard sank a free throw to put the game out of reach at 75-71.
The three seniors, Howard, Makkar, and Farmer, combined for 36 of UGF's 75 points, 11 of the team's 24 assists, and 5 of the team's 8 steals.
Farmer's stat line was much the same as it was when the half ended, but Makkar's point total went from 6 to 14 by game's end, which tied a season high. The other game that the senior scored 14, was another of UGF's four conference wins.
Isaac Howard scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half, while Schultz 7 of his 10 in the first.
UGF shot a blistering 76 percent from the field in the second, including 3-5 from 3-point range.
The win is a momentum building for the Argos who are now one game away from the Frontier Conference playoffs. UGF has already clinched a playoff berth with a record of 12-16 (4-13) and will enter the tournament as 6-seed, slated to play Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho on Wednesday, March 1.
"Any time you can win a game and get the guys' confidence up, it's pretty big," UGF Head Coach Anthony Owens said. "Shots become easier to make, and they make less mistakes. We won this one, and hopefully we'll win tomorrow night as well."
Before heading to the playoffs UGF has one more regular season game, a Saturday, February 25 home game against Montana Western at 7:30 p.m. The game will also be Senior Night for UGF.
