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Doubleheader homecoming victories fuel Montana Tech hoops

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1 year ago

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Doubleheader homecoming victories fuel Montana Tech hoops


BUTTE — For the past couple of weeks, the narrative surrounding Jeff Graham’s Montana Tech women’s basketball program has been how, despite being picked last in Frontier preseason polling, the Orediggers (18-9, 9-5 Frontier) have turned their underdog story around to pull off Graham’s most successful season with Tech thus far and their best regular season since 2011.

Now, with a 80-67 victory over Montana Western on Thursday night and one game left in the regular season Saturday against Providence (19-7, 9-5 Frontier), Graham and his Orediggers look to continue proving their doubters wrong.

“It definitely fuels us,” Liv Wangerin, who finished with a team-high 23 points, told 406 MT Sports of the Orediggers’ underdog narrative this season. “And our coaches remind us, ‘You know, you were picked last. Get it in gear.’”



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Montana Tech’s Liv Wangerin (30) shoots a free throw defended by during the Frontier Conference basketball game between Montana Tech and Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 at Kelvin Sampson Court.

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It was a slow start to the game against Western, with both teams struggling to find a comfortable pace. While the Bulldogs worked well defensively, getting 23 rebounds in the first half to the Orediggers’ 17, Tech’s offense was turned up to a higher notch with a 48% field goal percentage to Western’s 28.6%.

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Tech then went on an eight-point streak in the second quarter, holding Western to eight points in the Orediggers’ 15, and pulled away to a lead as large as 14 points in the third. The Bulldogs never got any closer to the Orediggers than that for the rest of the game.

Tech defended well (13 steals, five blocks), were aggressive in the paint, racking up 28 points and 44 rebounds, and were 23-for-31 at the free point line. The wealth on the court was shared too, as 11 players scored for Tech. Besides Wangerin’s 23 points, she was also 7-for-8 at the free throw line. Aubrie Rademacher had 14 points, Kia Wasson had 11 and was 3-for-3 at the three, and Macy Mayer and Hadley Humphreys shared the team high in rebounds with seven. And all in all, Tech’s bench scored 28 points to improve its home record to 11-2.







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Montana Tech’s Macy Mayer (32) is defended by Montana Western’s Isabella Lund (23) during the Frontier Conference basketball game between Montana Tech and Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 at Kelvin Sampson Court.




Just as has been the case all season, you never know who is going to step up for the Orediggers. In the case of tonight, it was 11 players who did.

“They bought in, they’re unselfish, they play hard, they defend,” Graham said. “They’ve established that winning mentality.”

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That winning mentality helped chiseled by the chip on their shoulder has fueled the Tech women all season and will carry them through to the end of the regular season as they prepare to face Providence on Saturday night.

The last game of the regular season – and the two teams battling for the No. 2 seed heading into the Frontier Conference tournament will be the team voted last in preseason polling and the team voted first in Providence.







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The Orediggers cheer from the bench during the Frontier Conference basketball game between Montana Tech and Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 at Kelvin Sampson Court.

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“It would be a good ending,” Wangerin said. “It would be cool if we get that win, because they were number one and we were last, so just kind of flip that role.”

Montana Tech men continue to battle through adversity

A narrative has existed all season for the Montana Tech men, too: aspirations of a four-peat.

And with four straight losses on the tail end of the regular season, all of them on the road, those four-peat aspirations nipped a little bit harder.

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But the return to home court and an 80-61 victory against the Bulldogs in the penultimate game of the regular season is exactly what the Oredigger men (21-6, 9-5 Frontier) needed as they gear up for the Frontier Conference tournament.







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Montana Tech’s Hayden Diekhans (11) celebrates a basket with the Orediggers during the Frontier Conference basketball game between Montana Tech and Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 at Kelvin Sampson Court.

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The Tech men have had bad breaks go against them this season: injuries, illness, close games. Basically everything that you could imagine that could turn against a team, coach Adam Hiatt said.

So the focus of the team ahead of this week at home, the last week of the regular season, was getting back to those roots and becoming that championship-caliber team despite the setbacks.

“You got two directions you can go as a coach,” Hiatt said. “You can just hammer your guys down even more and just get in their face and just really parade them every single day for losing these games.

“Or you can take the flip side and really focus on, ‘Okay, where are we really?’”

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Things looked a little shaky heading into halftime as Tech had the slight edge over Western 30-26. What became the real difference maker for the Orediggers came in the middle of the second period off of four-straight three-pointers: three from Keeley Bake and one from Levi Torgerson.

After that, the gap only widened as Tech pulled away to improve to 62.5% of field goal percentage, 5-for-10 at the three, and 15-for-20 at the free throw line compared to Western’s 37.9% field goal percentage, 4-for-10 at the three, and 9-for-12 at the free throw line.







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Montana Tech’s Keeley Bake (12) looks to pass defended by Montana Western’s Kevin Bethel (11) during the Frontier Conference basketball game between Montana Tech and Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 at Kelvin Sampson Court.

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As the Tech men battle through all the obstacles that are a given for any athletic program, they flexed their muscle tonight and showed why they are still a force to be reckoned with.

“We just need to focus on what we have right now, what we have available, and what we can do with what we have,” Hiatt said. “And our guys can defend, they can rebound, and we can make smart plays. And we did that tonight.”

Indeed, as Hayden Diekhans led the Orediggers in points with 25, as well as rebounds with 11. Bake and Michael Ure each notched 17 points, with Bake going 4-for-7 at the three and 5-for-5 at the free throw line and Ure going 10-for-11 at the free throw line.

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Montana Tech’s Michael Ure (42) grapples for possession of the ball with Montana Western’s Jalyn Stepney (1) and Montana Western’s Clarence Martin (5) during the Frontier Conference basketball game between Montana Tech and Montana Western on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 at Kelvin Sampson Court.



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Now, Tech will focus on its next and final regular-season game against Providence (15-12, 9-5 Frontier) as the Orediggers and Argos battle for the outright regular-season championship crown. Only after Tech takes care of Providence will Hiatt and his squad be able to shift their focus to the Frontier Conference tournament.

“Our entire attention is on the Saturday game. Nothing else matters more than that,” Hiatt said. “I can’t even tell you what the schedule is for the conference tournament because Saturday is the biggest game of the year for us.

“We have a lot on the line, and we’re going to go out there and give it our best.”

Bria Manning is the sports editor of The Montana Standard. Follow her on X at @briaamanning or contact her at bria.manning@406mtsports.com

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Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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9 hours ago

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March 2, 2026

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Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV





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Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

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21 hours ago

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March 1, 2026

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Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026


HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

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Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

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“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

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“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.





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Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

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March 1, 2026

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Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round


BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.

The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.

MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.

MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74

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MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.

Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.

Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.

But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.

As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.

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Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Montana Western 65, Carroll 56

After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.

Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.

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Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.

Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.





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