BUTTE, Mont. – The University of Providence men's basketball team was only outplayed in one area of its game against Montana Tech, but that one area was shooting, and it made all the difference as the Argos fell to the Orediggers 77-67. UP outrebounded Tech, shot more free throws, had the same numbers of steals, 1 less block, and just 3 more turnovers, but shot 44 percent to Tech's 58.
 
UP's shooting numbers were actually right around the team's season average, but Tech 58.8 percent was a bit of an aberration, being by far the team's highest percentage of conference play and second highest against any team other than Salish Kootenai College.
 
The Argos got off to a great start, working a lethal inside-outside combination with senior forward Steven Daho-Clark and senior point guard DuShaun Rice. The two accounted for 11 of UP's first 13 points to help the team get out to a 13-6 lead.
 
Off the strength of those first few minutes, the Argo led for a little over half of the first 20 minutes, but with 9:53 on the clock the team got stuck at 20 points. At that point, another score from Daho-Clark had UP ahead 20-16 but the Diggers rallied off 15 straight points and led 29-20 with six minutes to go in the period.
 
That lead grew to 11 points before sophomore Quesly-Marie Noresias  and redshirt-sophomore Kevin Schilling Jr. came off the bench to end the scoring drought. The pair of guards put in valuable minutes, getting to the line with regularity and combining to score the team's last 10 points of the half.
 
To start the second half, UP once again fed Daho-Clark to positive results, with the senior scoring the first 4 points of the half to bring the Argos with 4 but UP would only get that close again once for the rest of the game.
 
Daho-Clark continued to be effective at times in the rest of the second half, as did Noresias with the two former high school teammates combining to score 30 of the team's 67 points. They also combined for 8 of the team's 31 rebounds, and 2 of the  team's  5 steals while shooting a combined 11-17 from the floor.
 
Outside of Daho-Clark's 18 points and Noresia's 12, the only other Argo to eclipse the 10-point milestone was Rice with 11, 6 of which came in the first five minutes of the game.
 
With a final regular season record of 11-17 (5-13), the Argos will enter the Frontier Conference playoffs and the 6-seed. While that does mean a road game, the draw isn't necessarily a bad one for UP. The Argos will face 3-seed (19) Lewis-Clark State College, a team UP has played three close games against, including a 70-67 win on January 27. The game will be played in Lewiston, Idaho on Tuesday, February 27 at 8:30 p.m. MT.