DILLON, Mont. – The University of Providence men's basketball team fell to Montana Western 89-80 Thursday night in Dillon, Mont.

The two teams duked it out in the first-half, with Brendan Howard being nearly unstoppable for the Argos (11-15, 2-11) while the Bulldogs (16-12, 5-8) netting nine three-pointers to take a 46-42 lead into the break. The Bulldogs came out of the intermission on a 9-4 run, but the Argos stormed back, retaking the lead at 58-57 with 12:16 left in the game. The Bulldogs responded with their own 12-2 run and rode that lead all the way to the final buzzer.

"They came out and made nine three-pointers on us in the first half," head coach Steve Keller said. "They made 13 throughout the whole game. We took the lead with about 11 minutes to go, but they got it right back. They shot it really well from the three and from the field. We only made four of 16 from three."

Howard led the Argos on the night, scoring 24 points on the night on 11-of-19 shooting and pulling down six rebounds. Marcus Stephens recorded 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Jake Olsen added 12 points for the squad.

Max Clark led the Bulldogs with 26 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Jamal Stephenson had 23 points and seven boards. Jalen Hodges added 11 points.

As a team the Bulldogs shot 56.8% from the field and 46.4% from beyond the arc. The Argos mustered 44.8% from the field and 25.0% from three-point land.

The Argos will hit the road again on Saturday when they face Montana Tech at 4:00 p.m.

"Tech just got beat tonight by Carroll so they're going to be fired up," Keller said. "We're going to have to play better defense. We're not very good defensively right now."