Box Score SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College men's basketball team picked up a critical 70-61 win over Montana Tech in Frontier Conference play on Saturday night in the Behnken Field House.

Westminster picked up its second win of the week and fourth in the last five games to improve to 17-8 overall and 5-4 in Frontier action.  They have now climbed back within a game-and-a-half of first place MSU-Northern thanks help from around the league.  They are now also just one-game back of second place Montana Western.

Things didn't start out to strong for the Griffins as they found themselves trailing 19-10 less than eight minutes into the evening.  Thanks to a 13-4 run over the next six minutes, Westminster had evened the score at 23-23 before eventually taking the lad at 25-24 and again at 27-26.  Tech (10-10, 2-7) would eventually carry a 31-27 lead into halftime.

The visitors would again push the advantage to eight at the 15:58 mark thanks to seven points from Daniel Simon.  Tanner Gregory would then score six straight Westminster points during an 11-3 run that cut the deficit to 42-41 with 12:14 remaining.  The Griffins would then use a 13-4 push to take the lead at 54-51 with 7:04 to play.  Jake Orchard hit his only three of the game to put the Griffin in front 52-51 with 7:40 to play and the Griffins would not surrender the advantage for the rest of the night.  They went 8-of-10 at the foul line over the final 1:42 to seal the victory.

The Griffins finished the night shooting a season-best 59.1% from the floor.  That percentage was bolstered by the 68.2% they shot after intermission.  They had 32 points in the paint and scored six second chance points.  Westminster finished with a 30-23 rebounding advantage while recording 16 assists and seven blocked shots.

Jordan Hayter led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting.  The 19 points match his career high that was set back in November.  He also came up with four assists, three rebounds and one steal.  AJ Reilly had his second straight solid performance off the Griffin bench finishing with 15 points, including 13 after halftime. Orchard finished the game with 10 points and three assists.

Simon led the Orediggers with 18 points with Tyree Haynie adding 17.  Tech forced 17 Griffin turnovers and turned them into 26 points.

Westminster will now hit the road for the final time of the regular season with two games next weekend.  They begin the trip on Thursday with a 7:30 p.m. game at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont.  The game will be broadcast live on GOTW.tv.