The Warriors Hold Off the Griffins, 79-76, on Senior Night

LEWISTON, ID--The 24th-ranked Lewis-Clark State College Warriors held off a tough Westminster College team, 79-76, in a Frontier Conference men’s basketball game, Thursday night, at Warrior Gymnasium. The win for L-C clinches second place in final regular season standings, and they will open with the #7 seed Wednesday, February 27th, at 2:00 PM MST, in Butte, Mont., in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

Jason Brazier and Brian Meneely each scored 17 points in leading Lewis-Clark State (22-8, 11-3 Frontier Conference) to the win. James Idoko added 15 points and Sta’Fon Lawson chipped in with nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds. Senior guard Beau Barney added ten points and classmate Josh Wilson netted four points, grabbed two rebounds, and blocked a shot in their final appearance at Warrior Gymnasium.

Brad Willden scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Westminster College (18-10, 9-5) who clinched the third seed in the upcoming tournament. Todd Christensen added 17 points, 11 of which came from the charity stripe. Steve Cramer chipped in with 11 points.

Lewis-Clark State led throughout, but there were to ties, and the Warriors biggest lead was 11 points. LCSC had its biggest lead of 11 points at the 7:50 mark in the second half (62-51), but an 18-7 run by Westminster over the next 6:45 tied the game with just 1:05 left, on a pair of Willden free throws.

With L-C leading 72-69, Griffin reserve guard Isaac Butler sank a 3-pointer with 24 seconds remaining, but was called for charging, wiping the field goal off the board. Westminster head coach Tommy Connor vehemently disagreed with the call and was assessed a technical foul. Meneely sank one of two free throws for picking up the charge, and then Brazier made one of two shots on the technical to give L-C a 74-69 lead with 22 seconds left.

Butler added a trey with 18 second left to pull to within three. Christensen then fouled Meneely on the in-bounds pass and made both free throws to seal the game, 76-71, with 16 seconds remaining. Cramer sank a three-pointer with three seconds left to cut the lead to two, 78-76, but Chris Allen sank one of two to end the game, 79-76.

Box score vs. Westminster