Billings West literally connected with its best punch.

It wasn't even close to knocking out Natrona County.

The Mustangs weathered a physical storm and a tough test from another unbeaten, but Montana's top-ranked team didn't have enough power to hang around late in NC's 74-57 home win on Friday night.

"I think we've grown mentally and physically since last year, and that's the most important thing," NC coach Randy Roden said. "Last year (West) threw us around a little bit and we kind of backed away from them.

"(Friday) we took their punch and slugged back."

The best shot opened up a cut on the left cheek of Michael Dietz in the fourth quarter, and though it dazed the Mustangs senior and briefly forced him to the bench, the entire roster seemed to respond to the challenge from the Golden Bears.

After their lead slipped to six, the Mustangs rattled off a 17-6 run to the buzzer to pull away and stay perfect on the season - led by their battered forward's eight points in the final frame.

"It was a physical game for both teams I think," Dietz said. "That's just the nature of the game when it gets that competitive.

"It was a fun game and a big win for us. We wanted to come out, they had our number last year, so it was exciting for us to come and get another shot at them."

Dietz delivered most of his on the glass and with some solid defensive work, but he came alive late on the other end after West largely bottled him up in the first half with its stingy, swarming zone.

Eventually the Mustangs figured out how to handle it, and after going into intermission with just four points Dietz rolled up a game-high 18 to go with 12 from Tom Earl.

"I just think we've grown up in a lot of areas," Roden said. "This was a chance for us to show improvement, but also to see where we're at and where we've got to go. I liked what I saw obviously.

"We've got some things to work on, but our effort is very, very good. Mentally we are tougher than we've been in a long, long time. Last year we would have lasted about a quarter then faded away. We didn't do that. We were 9-0 coming in, but not a lot of those showed anything to me. We kind of had our way with everyone. We learned something (Friday)."

That's even more important since there aren't many lessons left on the schedule for Wyoming's top-ranked team, which can now stake a claim among the best in the region after the convincing win.

Free-throw shooting could still pose a problem down the stretch, and the Mustangs weren't perfect with the basketball.

But they landed more than enough punches to turn back the Golden Bears.

"This weekend was really going to show us what we're all about," Dietz said. "We're playing two quality teams, we took care of the first one and now we have to come out (today against Billings Skyview) and play just as hard."

Even if it means getting a little bloody.

Contact sports reporter Austin Ward at (307) 266-0634 or austin.ward@trib.com.

Natrona County 74, Billings West 57

BW 18 12 15 12 - 57

NC 15 18 18 23 - 74

Natrona County: Michael Dietz 18, Tom Earl 12, Mario Harris 11, Cam Loe 8, AD Boatright 7, Ryan Murphy 6, Zach Powell 5, Max Gustafson 5. Billings West: Peter Stordahl 18, Stanton Duke 14, Ben King 6, Jacob Ness 6, Eric Halvarson 5, Jase Muri 5, Brian Muller 1.