GREAT FALLS, Mont. -- Montana Tech's men's basketball program will have a chance to make history Tuesday.

The 21st-ranked Orediggers dispatched Rocky Mountain, 82-73, in the semifinal round of the Frontier Conference tournament Monday evening at the Pacific Steel & Recycling Arena in Great Falls. Tech, the top seed in the tournament, will play second-seeded Providence in Tuesday's championship at 7:30 p.m.

All five Orediggers starters scored in double figures in the semifinal win, led by Karson Peffer's 18 points in a career-high 34 minutes. Ifeanyi Okeke also had a standout game, totaling 16 points, seven assists, six rebounds, and three blocks in the win.

Things could not have started out better for Montana Tech (23-6). The Orediggers rushed out to a 20-2 lead and held control of the game for the remainder of the first half. Okeke led the Diggers with 10 points at half, Michael Ure and Hayden Diekhans scored nine each, and Peffer had eight.

Rocky Mountain (19-11) cut the lead to as few as 12 in the first half, but the period was all Tech. The Diggers took a 48-22 lead into the locker room.

After the break, the game got tighter. The Battlin' Bears ripped off a 14–1 run to cut the deficit to single digits. Tech stabilized the game, but in the late going Rocky Mountain made another charge. Royce Robinson, who scored 22 points in the second half for Rocky, cut the lead to three with 7:03 remaining in the game.

Diekhans stopped the bleeding immediately with a driving layup, and the Orediggers held serve from that point forward.

Robinson led all scorers with 24 points, and Jesse Owens scored 20 for the Battlin' Bears.

Diekhans had six rebounds to go with his 14 points. Ure also scored 14 for the Orediggers, and Keeley Bake scored 12.

Montana Tech moves into the Frontier Conference championship game for the fourth-consecutive season and will look to become the first program in conference history to win four straight tournament titles. The Orediggers became the first team to win four consecutive regular-season championships since Eastern Montana College did so from 1970-73.

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