Butte, Mont. - Mayville State University women's basketball took on future Frontier opponent, Montana Tech, Thursday night where they fell to the Diggers 79-89. 

In the first quarter, the Comets led by 7 with three minutes remaining, but back to back lay ups by the Diggers would close out the quarter tied at 18.

The Comets struggled to do anything offensively in the second quarter, putting up just 14 points. They were 3-13 from the field, 0-8 behind the arc and were 8-10 from the free throw line.

Montana Tech took advantage and put up 26 points and headed into halftime leading the Comets 44-32.

"I thought we got them to play the game at the pace we needed to in order to compete with their size," said head coach Ryan Carpenter. "We generated some really good shots from the 3 points line early and just couldn't get them to fall which put us in a 12 point hole at the half."

Mayville State entered the second half looking to get any type of momentum going that they could.

The Diggers showed no signs of letting up, leading by 20 points with just 2 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Three Comet 3 pointers would cut that deficit to 14 as they entered the fourth quarter trailing 54-68.

Alex Page popped of 7 points early, and another three 3 pointers in a row would put the Comets within one of the Diggers, 75-76 with 5 minutes remaining. 

A few missed layups and a couple turnovers by Mayville State allowed Montana Tech to get the win over the Comets.

"I thought we showed incredible resiliency in our comeback effort but it's always really hard to battle back from being down that big," added Carpenter.

Mackenzie Hughes led things for Mayville State as she score 23 points, had 4 steals, 6 assists and four rebounds. She made 4 threes and played all 40 minutes.

Alex page followed close behind with 18 points. She also snagged 8 rebounds. 

Jes Mertens was close to another triple double, scoring 10 points, 9 assists, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and 5 blocks. 

Annika Reierson had a career high 6 steals on the night. She also put up 11 points and played a career high 37 minutes.

The Comets will take on another future Frontier opponent tomorrow as they head to Dillon, Montana to take on Montana Western. Tip off is scheduled for 6:30pm CT.

For full schedule details visit: https://msucomets.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule