No comfort zone in K.C.; Warrior men again unable to establish any rhythm at nationals, dismissed with first-round defeat
Copyright of The Trib

By MATT BANEY
OF THE TRIBUNE

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It should be remembered that, during their two years together at Lewis-Clark State, the team's six core players vaulted from one breathtaking plateau to the next. They opened their new arena stylishly, became the kingpins of the Frontier Conference and gobbled up a long string of wins.

But the Midwest forever perplexed them. Here, in two appearances in the NAIA Division I national basketball tournament, the Warriors went 1-2 -- and never found their comfort zone.

The finest two-year stretch in L-C history came to an end with a 79-71 loss to 16th-seeded Trevecca Nazarene at the Municipal Auditorium on Wednesday afternoon. The first-round elimination caps the 17th-seeded Warriors' season at 25-9, and makes them 56-15 since fall of 2003.

Two of LCSC's usual strengths -- outside shooting and defense -- went AWOL in this contest. The Warriors made 6 of 25 3-pointers and let their opponent from Nashville, Tenn., fire at a 51.9-percent clip.

"Hey, these are the top 32 teams in the nation," said forward Martin Brothers, one of L-C's five seniors. "So it's not like we're losing to some cupcakes. We played hard, everybody gave it all they had -- we just didn't have enough today."

The Warriors' best stretch came in the first four minutes, when they bolted to an 8-2 lead.

But the Trojans eventually found their footing. With freshman guard Alex Renfroe popping in nine first-half points, Trevecca blotted out L-C's early advantage. Then Josh Helton, another frosh, planted a 3-pointer to put the Trojans up 33-30 at halftime.

Trevecca opened the second half by slowly building a 10-point lead. Over the final 10 minutes, the Warriors forged a number of pseudo-comebacks, but never got closer than three points.

Brothers, who scored a game-high 21 points, was the axis of L-C's second-half effort. During one juncture, he scored three consecutive baskets while being fouled (but only completed the three-point play on one of them).

"I didn't want to end my senior year not trying hard enough," Brothers said. "I wanted to feel exhausted after the game. If we were going to win, I knew I had tomorrow to rest. And if we were going to lose, I knew I was going to leave it on the floor like you're supposed to."

The one glaring deficiency in the Trojans' performance was their free throw shooting. They went 17-for-35 at the line -- which included a 6-for-14 showing in the final minute.

So this could have been a photo finish. Justin Fraser's top-of-the-key 3-point attempt, which would have cut the margin to two, rattled out with about 20 seconds left.

Trevecca's three big men -- Wesley Poe, Eric Price and Collins Onyando -- combined for just 25 points. And all of them finished the game on the bench: Price and Onyando fouled out, and Poe picked up two technicals.

The unlikely hero was Renfroe, a string-bean guard who is more rugged than he appears. The 6-1 Renfroe -- who became a starter late in the season when leading scorer Brandon Howard was injured -- scored 19 points, passed for seven assists, made four steals and (most remarkably) ripped down 14 rebounds.

"Alex Renfroe was tremendous tonight," Trevecca coach Sam Harris said. "How could you expect a freshman point guard to produce a double-double for you?"

Besides Brothers' flourish, John Moore tossed in 15 points, which included two spectacular dunks off lobs from Danny Allen. But no one else hit double digits, including Allen, L-C's leading scorer. He went 1-for-9 and finished with six points.

Trevecca's sticky matchup zone certainly had something to do with the Warriors' struggles. But that wasn't the only factor.

"There are six or seven different offenses that we can run against the zone," L-C coach George Pfeifer said, "and every time we went to a new one, we got open looks at the basket. ... If we make some of those shots, now all of a sudden at the end of the game, maybe we're ahead one or two. But we don't make those."

TREVECCA NAZARENE (25-7)

Poe 6-8 1-2 13, Price 4-7 1-5 9, Helton 3-7 4-8 12, Perry 5-10 1-4 14, Renfroe 5-10 9-12 19, Salvi 4-8 0-2 9, Pardue 0 0-0 0, Onyando 1 1-2 3. Totals 28-54 17-35 79.

LEWIS-CLARK STATE (25-9)

Moore 6-10 2-3 15, Brothers 8-10 5-9 21, Pitts 1-3 0-2 2, Allen 1-9 4-4 6, Bishop 1-2 2-2 4, Ray 2-7 0-0 5, Fraser 3-5 0-0 9, Wilson 1-4 0-0 3, Idoko 1-1 0-0 2, Tikker 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 26-56 13-21 71.

Halftime score -- TNU 33, LCSC 30. Three-point goals -- TNU 6-20 (Helton 2-6, Perry 3-7, Renfroe 0-3, Salvi 1-4); LCSC 6-25 (Moore 1-1, Allen 0-6, Bishop 0-1, Ray 1-6, Fraser 3-5, Wilson 1-4, Tikker 0-2). Rebounds -- TNU 40 (Renfroe 14); LCSC 31 (Brothers 7). Assists -- TNU 12 (Renfroe 7); LCSC 12 (Allen 6). Total fouls -- TNU 22; LCSC 27. Technical fouls -- Poe 2, Allen. Fouled out -- Poe, Price, Onyando, Idoko.