GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence will look to respond from a heartbreaking loss to Lewis-Clark State on Saturday when they travel up north to take on Montana State Northern Thursday night.

The Argos (11-7, 2-4) defeated the Skylights 68-64 in their first matchup of the year on Jan. 9, and knows that Northern (14-4, 3-3) will be ready for revenge Thursday night when the balls tips off in Havre at 6:00 p.m.

"Northern is a really tough place to play as well-coached as they are," head coach Bill Himmelberg said. "We need to go get one up there."

The Argos will need to contain the three-headed monster of McKenzie Gunter (12.3 ppg), Peyton Kehr (10.2 ppg) and Hailey Nicholson (9.9 ppg). Himmelberg knows that Montana State Northern likes to play at a slower tempo, so every possession, offensively and defensively,  will matter.

"We're going to have to execute," Himmelberg said. "It's going to be a low-scoring game; they're going to control the tempo. We're going to need to shoot it well, we're going to have to take care of the ball and we're going to need to defend. They have three girls who can really score. We have to make sure we make it tough on them."

Saturday's game against Carroll will be a complete change of pace. While Northern likes to play a slower-paced game, Carroll likes to play fast, and is one of the best three point shooting teams in the league at 32%.

"Carroll is totally different beast," Himmelberg said. "We have to make sure we take away the three-point line away from them a little bit. We need to contest every shot and then rebound. I think Carroll rebounds the ball as well as anybody in the league. A key to beating them is to make sure we control the boards."

After playing every team in the Frontier Conference once, the Argos sit at 6^th in the standings at 2-4. However only one of those losses has been by more than 10 points.

"We can beat anybody on any given night if we play well," Himmelberg said. "But we have to play well. There isn't anybody that we think is unbeatable or out of our reach at all by any stretch of the imagination. But if we don't play well anybody can get us."

A few of the losses has come down to late-game execution. To combat this, Himmelberg has added two-minute games into his practices to simulate end of game situations to help his team prepare for close games in the future.

"We work a lot on that execution down the stretch," he said. "We practice it over and over again every day in practice. When it comes down to it at that point in the game, we're ready to go. I'm excited for this weekend. These are big games."