BUTTE, Mont. – Austin Starr scored 21 points, while Brandon Cotton and Jalen Shepard scored 15 and 13 respectively as the Montana Tech held off the Argos 69-68 on Friday evening.
 
The Orediggers (14-7, 4-5) snapped a three-game losing streak with the win over the Argos (14-7, 5-5).
 
Starr added six boards, three steals, and an assist to his game-high 21 points. Shepard also loaded up the stat sheet with five rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Jaxen Hashley and JF Daho led the Argos on the board with eight rebounds apiece in the loss.
 
Troy Owens Jr. led Tech offensively with 18 points, followed by Taylor England and Blake Dittman who scored 13 apiece. England almost tallied a double-double with nine boards.
 
The Argos and Orediggers would trade shots over the opening eight minutes of play in route to a 13-13 tie. The Argos would then score eight unanswered points to take a 21-13 lead with eight and a half minutes on the clock. The Argos would maintain a two-point advantage with two minutes left in the period, 30-28. However, the Orediggers would tally seven straight points to close out the half and take a four-point advantage headed into the locker room, 35-31.
 
A 6-2 Argo run opened the final period to knot things up at 37. The game remained tied through the 13:47-minute mark at 45. Through the following eight minutes of clock, The Orediggers would outscore the Argos by double-digits, 23-11, to break away and take a 12-point advantage with less than five minutes to play, 68-56. The Argos locked in defensively over the final five minutes of play as they only allowed the Orediggers to net one free throw in route to a 12-1 run that brought them just one-point shy of tying up the game before they would fall 69-68.
 
Up Next
The Argos will return home as they host the Carroll College Fighting Saints and Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears in back-to-back games on Friday, February 1 and Saturday, February 2 at 7:30 p.m.