BUTTE – the no 13 Montana Tech Orediggers returned to action after a 10 day break against the St. Mary’s University (Canada) Lightning. There was no rust to shake off for the Diggers, as they cruised to a 98-62 victory.
It was only a seven point deficit early in the first half before Tech’s Keeley Bake caught fire from three-point range. Bake made three consecutive three-pointers to extend the lead to double figures and made five shots from behind the arc throughout the game. Bake scored 15 points, tied for the team lead with forward Caleb Bellach.
“Keeley got loose a little bit tonight and you could see why teams try to close that air space because he can really shoot it. He’s a guy who can really break open a game on his own,” Tech head coach Adam Hiatt said.
Tech led by 19 points at halftime and continued to expand on the lead in the second half. Tech shot 52.9% from three-point range and held St. Mary’s to 27.5% shooting in the opening helped.
“We did a pretty good job of adjusting at halftime. We created a lot more turnovers in the second half and were much better rebounding, certainly on the offensive end,” Hiatt said. “I felt like that was the difference in the game.”
Tech only had six turnovers compared to the 19 that they forced, 13 of which came in the second half. Defense created offense, as the Diggers scored 23 points off of turnovers. They outrebounded the Lightning 52-41 and had a five rebound advantage on the offensive glass.
All 15 players earned minutes for the Diggers, with 14 of them scoring. Four players scored in double figures.
“We wanted to use this game as an opportunity to continue to develop players,” Hiatt said. “We have a lot of good players and some guys we are looking at for increased roles going into conference play”.
After a break from games during the holidays and with conference games on the horizon, it was a chance for the Diggers to ease back into things. They extended their record to 12-2 with the win.
Caleb Jipp led the Lightning with 19 points and Brock Dewsbery scored 18 points. The duo combined for seven makes from behind the arc.
The Diggers play again on Friday against Keyano College at 4 pm St. Mary’s continues their Montana road trip with a game against MSU-Northern on Friday at 7:30 pm
