L-C keeps Wildcats winless; Men troubled
by zone, but prevail 58-43
copyright The
Trib
By MATT BANEY
OF THE TRIBUNE
The
Lewis-Clark State basketball teams have now
occupied the Activity Center for nearly a
full calendar year, and they have yet to
lose a single game there. After Friday
night, the men's and women's clubs are a
combined 26-0 in their new arena.
But for a few
surreal moments in the second half, an 0-14
team seemed to have a vague chance of
beating the LCSC men. Had that happened, the
Activity Center might have collapsed into a
pile of rubble and been sucked below ground.
The Warriors,
however, did avert disaster. They punched in
some clutch baskets in the closing minutes
to forge a 58-43 victory over winless
Johnson & Wales.
LCSC (11-2, ranked
22nd in the NAIA) mustered air-tight defense
in the first half. The Warriors went to the
locker room with a 32-13 edge, after the
Wildcats shot 17.4 percent from the floor.
But the Denver club
found some traction in the second period.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Danny Lopez and
Eric Daniels made it a 10-point game with
14:50 left.
Later, JWU cobbled
together a 7-0 spree to cut the Warriors'
lead to 43-36 -- the closest it would get.
Meanwhile, LCSC's
offense went icy. Coach Tim Walker blamed
the dropoff on the Wildcats' zone defense.
"We haven't been
zoned like that for 30 minutes," Walker
said. "... We just don't have a lot of zone
stuff in -- three things, actually. But
we're probably adding some stuff tonight for
tomorrow afternoon's game."
Nevertheless, the
Warriors gutted out baskets when they had to
have them. After the lead was cut to seven,
Jamal Harris hit a baseline runner, followed
by a Keith Scarbrough 3-pointer and a Harris
dunk off a drive and feed from Eric Durrett.
Since the Warriors
weren't accustomed to attacking a zone,
their offense was mistake-prone. They
coughed up 24 turnovers -- which is one of
the reasons they had just 50 shot attempts.
JWU (now 0-15)
attended the NAIA Division II national
tournament last year, but are an almost
totally different team this season.
But the Wildcats do
have some keepers. Chief among them is
Daniels, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Salt Lake
City who pumped in a game-high 19 points.
L-C was paced by
Chris Pitts (11 points, 12 rebounds), Harris
(10 points, eight boards) and Scarbrough
(nine points, six assists, six boards).
The Warriors will
face JWU again today at 4 p.m.
After the game,
Walker told his players that he was going to
the movies.
"And they asked me
what movie it was, and I said, 'Well, it's
Johnson & Wales at L-C, and it starts at
about 10 o'clock.'
"I think they had a
little compassion for me," Walker added.
"I'd just like to go home and rest tonight,
but since we were so awful in the
half-court, I've got to work tonight."
JOHNSON & WALES
(0-15)
Lopez 2-8 0-0 5,
Daniels 7-13 1-2 19, Jones 1-9 0-0 2,
Mitchell 2-7 2-2 6, Brumley 1-6 2-2 5, Dobbs
0-3 4-4 4, Fantini 0-1 0-0 0, Smith 1-2 0-1
2. Totals 14-49 9-11 43.
LEWIS-CLARK STATE
(11-2)
Ward 2-3 0-0 4,
Pitts 4-7 3-3 11, Durrett 4-13 0-0 9,
Scarbrough 3-5 0-0 9, Bishop 1-3 4-4 6, Orr
0-3 0-0 0, Thompson 1-3 0-0 2, Harris 4-9
2-3 10, Tikker 3-4 1-1 7. Totals 22-50 10-11
58.
Halftime score --
LCSC 32, JWU 13. Three-point goals -- JWU
6-18 (Lopez 1-5, Daniels 4-8, Brumley 1-4,
Dobbs 0-1); LCSC 4-15 (Ward 0-1, Durrett
1-5, Scarbrough 3-5, Bishop 0-2, Orr 0-2).
Rebounds -- JWU 24 (Jones 8); LCSC 43 (Pitts
12). Assists -- JWU 9 (Lopez 4); LCSC 15 (Scarbrough
6). Total fouls -- JWU 14; LCSC 14.
Technical fouls -- JWU's Jones. Fouled out
-- none. |
