Phoenix, AZ- On Thursday evening, Arizona Christian cruised past Montana Tech 84-62 on the neutral court of Chandler-Gilbert Community College.  The game turned from a close game to a blowout thanks to the Firestorm forcing the Orediggers into an eight minute scoreless drought.  Senior Brandon Newman (22 points) and Junior Chris Sterling (19 points) carried the offensive load as both nailed 3 three pointers.

Sterling accounted for the first four points before Newman poured in his first three pointer and ACU held a 7-2 edge 90 seconds into the game.  With four and a half minutes ticked off the clock, Senior Sharif Watson stole the ball and gave a nice outlet feed to Newman for a fast break layup and a six point ACU cushion.

The Orediggers (5-7) countered and less than three minutes later grabbed their first lead of the game.

Sterling tied the game at 17-17 but Montana Tech quickly moved ahead and extended out a 28-23 advantage with 6:13 left in the half.

But the Firestorm (12-2) became a complete defensive wall as they would not let the Orediggers score for the remainder of the half and then some.  During their defensive stand, ACU forced eight straight turnovers.  Montana Tech did not even attempt another shot until 1:41 remained in the half.

Meanwhile, offensively ACU closed out the half with a 20-0 run.  Sterling and Neman dropped in 28 combined points in the first half- 14 points apiece- or the complete first half scoring total of the Orediggers.

A pair of free throws from Senior Jackson Helms and another by Newman pushed Arizona Christian out in front by 18 to begin the second half.

With 18:32 remaining in the game, Montana Tech finally found the scoreboard and snapped their nearly eight minute drought.

The Firestorm cruised from there building as large as a 33 point lead.

On Friday, the Firestorm will return to the same court to face off with Montana-Western at 8:00 pm.