GREAT FALLS — The Providence men’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Frontier Conference preseason poll.
Fast forward to Thursday with the final weekend of league games, and a 2-0 week will give the Argos the outright regular-season conference title.
“We know we got a chance to win this league, and put us in a really good spot as far as, you know national play,” senior Antoine Boyd Jr. said Tuesday at the McLaughlin Center. “Walking in (to the final two games) with the confidence that we’re the best team, and you know we’re going to get it done.”
“That’s as much motivation as we need,” senior Jamil Bowles said. “Knowing that we still have a chance right now to get first place is motivation to the guys.”
This group entered the season with 15 new players on the roster, and are currently tied for first with No. 15-ranked Montana Tech at 8-5 each in the conference.
Boyd and Bowles have been key pieces of this Argos team this season, both being named Frontier Conference player of the week twice.
After dropping both contests last week to Carroll and Montana Western, the duo said they have to shelve those losses and prepare for two pivotal road games.
“We go there, and we do what we got to do as a team, and just handle all the little things, and I feel like we’ve got a real good chance of taking both of them on the road,” Boyd said.
“Right now we can go from first, we can go to fourth, with one loss depending on how the other teams do,” Bowles said. “Going in there with that 1-0 mentality, you got to really focus on the task at hand. You can’t look too far ahead, you can’t look too far behind.”
Providence’s week consists of MSU-Northern and Tech. If the Argos and Orediggers are to each win their respective games Thursday, that would set up a winner-take-all regular season finale in Butte on Saturday.
Boyd and Bowles both emphasized the time is now for the Argos.
“Everybody on the team know what’s at stake,” Boyd said. “We can go win this conference, so just be dialed in. Pay attention to every little thing coach is saying. Clean up the mistakes that we’ve been making these past couple of games, and we do those things and we got a real good shot.”
“That really would determine first or second place, which at the end of the day is still a first-round bye (in the league tournament) either way,” Bowles said. “We want that regular-season championship title under us.”
Providence heads to Havre to face Northern on Thursday at 7 p.m., and will wrap up the regular season Saturday at Montana Tech.
Grateful for everything she’s done—and continues to do—for this game we love.
