BUTTE — It was a good day for fans of Mining City basketball.
Montana Tech swept past Providence at the HPER Complex, the Butte Central boys pulled past Frenchtown and the Butte High boys fended off Kalispell Flathead as the hometown teams went 4-0 on Saturday.
At Tech, the Oredigger women overcame a double-digit deficit and erupted in the second half to top Providence 69-61. The win gave Tech (5-9 overall, 1-3 in the Frontier) its first conference win of the season and the first Frontier victory for head coach Jeff Graham.
"Just proud of the girls, they battled," said Graham after the game. "They deserve it. They've been close, playing good halves and good quarters. Second half we got the lid to come off."
After trailing 29-16 at halftime — and only hitting a single field goal in the second quarter — Tech's offense surged, outscoring Providence 25-20 in the third quarter and 28-12 in the fourth.
Tavia Rooney led the way in the Orediggers first win of the new year with a double-double performance. Rooney piled up a game-high 26 points — including 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range — and collected 13 rebounds. Aubrie Rademacher added 14 points and five rebounds and Soda Rice and Ally Cleverly each had eight.
The Argos (11-6, 1-3) were paced by a 15-point outing from Reed Hazard, 14 from Maddy Dixon and 10 from Brooklyn Harn.
In the men's game, No. 13 Montana Tech improved to 3-1 in conference play with a 95-82 win over Providence.
Caleb Bellach led the Orediggers with 26 points, Michael Ure had 23, Asa Williams scored 13 and Keeley Bake added 11. Bridger Larson came close to a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds.
Providence (8-9, 2-2) saw five players score in double digits — Kenny Curtis led the Argos with 23, Davien Harris-Williams had 14, Jake Olsen and Sam Vining had 11 apiece and Marcus Stephens had 10.
Tech will now host MSU-Northern on Thursday and the Oredigger men will be raising banners for their Frontier Conference regular season and tournament titles from last year. Providence will head to Carroll College.
The Butte Central and Butte High boys also posted wins on Saturday. At the Maroon Activities Center, Dougie Peoples piled up 29 points as Central beat previously undefeated Frenchtown 55-42.
Kyle Holter added 11 points for the Maroons. Frenchtown was led by 13 points from Eli Quinn and 11 from Connor Michaud.
At Ross J. Richardson Memorial Gym, Butte High earned a 59-48 win over Kalispell Flathead to give the Bulldogs two wins in as many days after defeating Kalispell Glacier on Friday. The win moved Butte to 2-0 in Western AA play.
Cameron Gurnsey paced Butte with 16 points and Jace Stenson had 12. The Braves were led by a game-high 30 points from Noah Cummings.
