BUTTE -- Three Orediggers scored in double figures, Hadley Humpherys reached a career milestone, and the No. 14-ranked Montana Tech women's basketball team rallied late to top Providence, 65-58, Friday evening in its 2026 home-opener. 

Trailing by a point with 5 minutes to play, Montana Tech ripped off a 9-2 run in the waning minutes to take control of the game and extend its win streak to eight in a row. 

Halle Haber led the Orediggers (13-1, 9-1 Frontier Conference) with 15 points, while Olivia Nielson and Liv Wangerin scored 14 apiece. 

Humpherys, Tech's leading scorer on the season, tallied just four points but notched the 1,000th point of her collegiate career with a free throw in the game's final minute. The senior, who spent her first two college seasons at Utah State-Eastern, was a first-team All-Frontier selection for the Orediggers last year in her first season with the program. She leads Montana Tech in 2025-26 in scoring (12.0) and rebounding (7.6) average. 

The game was a battle from the opening whistle. Montana Tech began the ballgame on a 9-2 run, but the Argos (10-6, 6-4) quickly responded with a 12-0 barrage of their own. UP led 14-9 after the first period. 

In the second, the UP defense kept Tech's usually-efficient offense in check again. The Orediggers shot just 6-for-17 from the field and 0-for-5 from 3-point range en route to a season-low 24 first-half points. 

Providence led 31-24 at the half. 

Wangerin's six third-quarter points helped the Orediggers stay in the game as Tech trailed 43-39 headed to the final period. 

It didn't take the Orediggers long to close the gap in the fourth. After a UP bucket to open the stanza, Nielson made a layup and a 3-pointer to trim the lead to one, and Avery Carlson gave Tech its first lead since the first quarter with 7:06 to go. 

Providence briefly retook the lead, but Brooke Badovinac's layup at the 4:58 mark started the 9-2 run that gave the Orediggers some breathing room. Nielson's 3-pointer with just under a minute to go was the dagger, putting Tech up by seven. 

The Orediggers will return to Valley Bank Arena Saturday at 5 p.m., when MSU-Northern pays a visit to Butte. 

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