GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The (14) University of Providence women's basketball team shot the ball fairly well against Montana Tech, but other than that, there wasn't much that went the Lady Argo's way in a 90-62 loss to Montana Tech. Tech's 90 points were the most scored on the Lady Argos all year, and UP had its second most turnovers of the year with 23.
 
Tech started the game on a 7-0 run but UP got a few good post touches to freshman Parker Esary to answer. With three minutes left in the first quarter, senior guard Stephanie McDonagh made a layup to bring the score to 15-13 in favor of the Orediggers. That would be as close as the Lady Argos would get for the rest of the game.
 
Over last three minutes of the period, UP turned the ball over 4 times and  came  a buzzer-beating transition layup from Esary away from being down 10 after 10 minutes of play.
 
After Esary scored UP's first 4 points of the game, the Diggers recognized that stopping her once she got the ball was unlikely, and instead focused on denying her the ball altogether. The Lady Argos continued to try and feed her the ball, but as often as not those passes got picked off and turned into transition points for Tech.
 
Perhaps the most shocking development in the first half was Tech's ability to outrebound a Lady Argo squad that ranks 9th in the NAIA in rebounding margin. By the end of the first half, the Diggers had 20 boards to UP's 14, including 8 offensive rebounds. 
 
That differential along with the Lady Argo's 11  first half  turnovers and Tech's 51 percent shooting meant a 20 point deficit at the half for UP.
 
The second half played out largely the same as the first, with UP struggling to hang on to the ball and Tech scoring almost at will.
 
McDonagh was the lone bright spot through three quarters. With three minutes left in the third quarter, the senior had 16 of the Lady Argo's 39 points, accounting for 41 percent of the team's scoring. She got a little more help in the fourth quarter, but the team still couldn't stop Tech on the defensive end.
 
Esary tallied up her fourth career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and added 2 blocks and 2 steals on the defensive end. McDonagh finished with a  team leading  18 points to bring her streak of consecutive double-digit scoring efforts to 17.
 
The loss ends a  six game  winning streak for the Lady Argos who technically will still hold the lone first place spot in the Frontier Conference with a record of 15-4 (6-2) but that will likely end in a tie soon with both Carroll College and Rocky Mountain College sitting at 5-2 and playing within 24 hours.
 
UP will look to start a new winning streak with a home game against (RV) University of Montana Western on January 26 at 5:30 p.m.