Westminster drops L-C out of league lead
Copyright of the Lewiston Morning Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY -- After an anemic offensive performance early on, the Lewis-Clark State men's basketball team rallied back into contention, but still lost to Westminster on Saturday night in Frontier Conference play.

The 21st-ranked Griffins dropped the 13th-ranked Warriors 59-52. Carroll (9-2) and Westminster (8-2) are now ahead of LCSC (19-8, 7-3) in the FC standings.

In the opening half, the Warriors got off just 19 shots -- and committed 14 turnovers. The score was 6-0 Westminster after 5 1/2 minutes of play.

The score was 27-20 at halftime, and the Griffins were still up seven with about four minutes left.

The Warriors got their rally going with three consecutive buckets by Danny Allen. Then, with 1:20 remaining, Joey Ray connected on a jumper to make it 54-52.

Westminster answered with a 3-pointer from Jared Ruiz. Ray then turned the ball over, and the Griffins' Danny Reeder finalized the scoring with two free throws.

But LCSC coach George Pfeifer made it clear that this game was lost in the first half.

"This is a carbon copy of the Carroll game," he said, referring to the Warriors' setback last Saturday. "We struggle, struggle, struggle, then we get tough down the stretch and get back into it. But we just didn't play with the mental vigor we needed early on."

LCSC will play its final two home game next week, facing Montana State-Northern on Thursday and Great Falls on Saturday.

Statistics from the game were not made available to the Tribune.