GREAT FALLS, Mont.- The Oredigger men will get their Frontier Conference tournament underway on Friday at 1 p.m., in the Pacific Steel & Recycling Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.

Montana Tech enters the tournament as the regular season champions and will have a first-round bye, as the overall No. 1 seed. They will play the first-round winner with the fewest conference wins.

Play begins on the Men's side with No. 4 seed Montana Western facing No. 5 seed MSU-Northern at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Montana Western the conference season with a 6-9 record with Northern went 3-12. The Bulldogs won two of the three games against the Lights, but they dropped the last meeting on February 15.

Thursday's second game features No. 3 seed Providence against No. 6 seed Rocky Mountain at 3 p.m. MST. Providence finished 7-8 during conference action while Rocky compiled a 3-9 mark. Two of the Battlin' Bears' three conference wins came over the Argos, however they lost the last matchup on February 10.

Montana Tech finished the regular season with a 24-4 overall record and a 14-1 mark in conference play. The Orediggers have won the Frontier Conference regular season crown for the last three years, and have a shot at history if they can take home the tournament championship.

The Frontier Conference tournament was started in 1975-76. Since that initial tournament, no team has been able to win the regular season championship, and the tournament championship in three straight years. Several teams have won three straight regular-season crowns but were unable to take down the tournament those same years.

The Orediggers for example, won the tournament three straight years from '82-84, but only won the regular season twice, in '83 and 84.

Montana Tech has won their last 10 games and 16 of their last 17 overall. During their current run of 10 wins, they have outscored their opponents by an average of 21.4 points per game.

The Orediggers are the highest-scoring offense in the conference at 84.6 points per contest. They are also the stingiest defense in the conference (by a wide margin) only allowing 64 points per game. The 64 points per game allowed is the 7^th lowest in the country.

Defense is one of the pillars that Coach Adam Hiatt's Oredigger program has been built on, another is (lack of) turnovers. The Orediggers lead the conference at 9.3 turnovers a game, which is the 5^th lowest in the country.

Montana Tech enters the Frontier Conference with four players averaging double figures in scoring. Asa Williams is getting 16 points a game, Caleb Bellach checks in at 13, Michael Ure is right with him at 12.6, and Hayden Diekhans is at 10.3 points per game.

The Men's Championship will be played at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and the winner will receive an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament.

Every game will be available to stream through the Frontier Conference YouTube which can be found HERE.