Box Score BUTTE, Mont. – The 10th-ranked Westminster College men's basketball team opened the Frontier Conference season with a 78-67 loss at Montana Tech on Friday night.  This is the second straight year the Griffins have lost the conference opener to Tech.

Westminster (12-5, 0-1 Frontier) struggled to shhot the ball from beyond the arc as they finished 5-of-17 (29.4%) and were outscored by 24 points in that category.  Tech (9-3, 1-0) went 13-for-22 (59.1%) from long range to pick up theit third straight win over the Griffins dating back to last season.

Westminster did finish the game shooting 49.1% from the field and recorded 14 assists and only nine turnovers.  They forced 10 turnovers on the defensive end and grabbed five steals.  The Griffins collected 28 rebounds with eight coming on the offensive end but only shot eight free throws to the 21 taken by the Orediggers.

Jake Orchard led Westminster with his 18 points.  He went 8-for-15 from the floor with one assist and one steal.  This was his 15th double digit scoring game of the year.  Jordan Hayter scored 14 points in his first Frontier Conference game while Adam Rainbird added 11 points off the bench.

Tech had four players in double figures with three of them reaching 19 in the game.  AJ Paine, Adam Greger and Brian Cummings each scored 19 with Paine making five threes and Cummings adding four.

Westminster will look to bounce back on Saturday when they face Montana Western in Dillon.  That game will begin at 7:30 p.m.