DILLON, Mont. – A brilliant first half faded in the second half, as the University of Providence men's basketball team continues to hang with Frontier Conference teams without pulling off the win in a 77-67 loss to (8) University of Montana Western. UP shot 53 percent in the first half and led 42-32, but only scored 25 more points in the second half.
 
Through 10 minutes of play, it was actually the Bulldogs who has held the lead majority of the team. That changed quickly with the Argos scoring 7 straight points in the next two minutes, including threes from senior guards Sergio Berkley and Matthew Brooks-McGregor.
 
That run was part of a longer stretch of UP dominance from 9:43 on the clock till 6:43 when the Argos outscored the Bulldogs 16-4. By the end of that rally, UP led by 11 and Berkley in particular was feeling it.
 
The senior finished the half with 16 points on 5-7 shooting including 2-3 from 3-point range, while the team shot 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from three. Western also shot well, making 54 percent from the floor but the difference was lower numbers from three as well as from the free-throw line. While UP with 6-12 from distance, the Bulldogs went 2-7. Western also went a dismal 4-11 from the charity stripe while the Argos went 8-8.
 
The 10 point lead that the Argos held to start the second half quickly disappeared. Western scored the first 7 points of the half. UP held onto the lead by driving into the paint, but with 12:23 on the clock the score was tied at 48-48.
 
When senior forward Steven Daho-Clark made a free throw at the 10:23 mark, UP was ahead 10:23. That would be the last lead of the night for the Argos.
 
UP's shooting cooled dramatically for the rest of the game and Western's only got better. Slowly, the Bulldogs built the lead till the score eventually stood at 71-60 UMW with two minutes left. The Bulldogs made every shot attempt from the field or the line for the rest of the game and margin ended at 10 points.
 
That margin was a vast improvement from the last time the two teams played when Western beat the Argos 91-60. Defense was the major difference in that effort. The Argos came into the meeting 0-2 against the Bulldogs in 2017-18 and the first time the teams met, UMW put up 100 points.
 
Despite cooling off in the second half, Berkley still finished as UP's leading scorer with 19 points on 6-11 shooting. When Berkley went cold, fellow senior DuShaun Rice got more aggressive, finishing with 13 points after only scoring 5 points in the first half, the team's leading scorer for the season finished with 13 points, 5 steals, and 3 assists. He also went 8-8 from the free-throw line.
 
UP's record falls to 10-14 (4-10) on the year, but the Argos have been close in most of the team's conference loses regardless of how highly ranked the opponent might be. UP will return home where the team is 6-5 to take on Rocky Mountain College on February 16 at 7:30 p.m.