BILLINGS, Mont. – There was barely anything separating University of Providence men's basketball from Rocky Mountain College in the teams' second meeting of the year. Both teams shot over 50 percent, both teams led the game for over 10 minutes, and the largest lead by either team was 6 points but it was the Battlin' Bears that came out on top, 76-73.
 
The Argos held a 62-60 lead with just over five minutes, but back-to-back threes from RMC turned the tide. With just over a minute left, Rocky held a 6 point lead, the largest of the game, but UP senior guard DuShaun Rice answered with a clutch three.
 
His shot kept the Argos in the game, but Rocky brought the lead back to 2 scores with a layup on the next possession. Needing a quick score, UP fed senior forward Steven Daho-Clark in the post and though he missed his layup attempt, he drew a foul and hit both free throws to bring the score back to 71-68.
 
Looking for a turnover, the Argos got even more aggressive on the full-court press that they ran for most of the game. Rocky broke the press and forced UP to start fouling to save time.
 
It looked the game might be out of reach after the Battlin' Bears hit their next 2 free throws take a 5 point lead with 20 seconds left, but Argo senior Jared Schultz hit a quick contested three pull the game back within reach.
 
Twice more UP was forced to foul and hope for a miss. They finally got one to bring the score back down to 3 points, but that happened with three seconds left and the half court heave didn't go down.
 
The first half was played out to a 33-33 tie with UP shooting 53.8 percent from the field. Most of the team's 14 made shots came either from Daho-Clark, who scored 11 points on 5-6 shooting, or junior D'shea Williams, who scored 8 points on 4-5 shooting.
 
Rocky, a team that often lives or dies by the three went 2-13 from distance, survived by grabbing 5 offensive rebounds.
 
Rice and Schultz carried the Argos in the second half, each scoring 13 points in the final 20 minutes. Sophomore guard Quesly-Marie Noresias also put in valuable minutes off the bench, scoring 7 points in five minutes in the second half.
 
UP shot 51.9 percent in the game, the team's best in the last six contests.
 
Rice finished as the Argo's leading scorer with 17 points along with 3 assists and 2 steals. Schultz put up almost identical numbers with 16 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
 
While those two guards patrolled the edges, Daho-Clark worked the paint and scored 13 points with 2 assists.
 
A lot was at stake in the game for the Argos. Had UP won, the team would have been tied with Rocky for fifth in the conference with a guaranteed head-to-head tiebreaker. Instead, with a record of 10-12 (4-8) the Argos are in sixth with a  one game  lead over Montana Tech for last. 
 
Next up for UP will be a road trip to play (19) Lewis-Clark State College on February 8.