HAVRE — LaVon Myers scored 22 points and 13th-ranked Montana State-Northern eluded Montana Tech for a 62-52 Frontier Conference college men's basketball victory Friday night in The Armory Gym.

The two teams were tied 32-all at halftime.

Sean Kelly scored 13 points for Northern.

Montana Tech leaders included Tyree Haynie with 15 points, A.J. Paine with 13 and Adam Greger with 10.

“We lost by more than double this (10 points) last year,” Oredigger head coach Aaron Woliczko said. “So, this is a huge improvement over last year. I like to look at the positives and that's a huge positive.”

The coach said the shooting touch betrayed his team some after intermission.

“We didn't shoot it well in the second half,” he said. “There were a couple of instances where we couldn't get the ball in the basket.”

Haynie shot 60 percent from the field in a good performance.

“He was able to come off the off-ball screens and shoot his left-handed floaters,” Wolicszko said. “A.J. had a really great first half, defensively, and with making shots. He kept us in the game.”

Woliczko said the Orediggers experimented with a new defensive ploy and it took some time to adjust. He was happy, though, with how it worked.

“The guys did a good job carrying out their assignments,” he said. “Northern averages 10 makes a game from (3-point range) and tonight, they had seven. I was happy with the way we defended the 3-point line tonight.”

Montana Tech is scheduled for a 7:30 game at Great Falls on Saturday night.

“They're a tremendously improved team from a year ago,” Woliczko said. “They present an entirely different problem for us. They are a drive-and-dish team. 

“We hope to we do a great job defending them, and the 3 that they'll shoot occasionally.”