MVP Gordy helps Warriors remain undefeated with 59-52 win

11-3-07

After cruising relatively smooth through its first three games, the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team found the fourth game a little tougher. 

Senior forward Mike Gordy’s (left) double-double helped the Warriors overcome a poor shooting night to hold off Cascade College 59-52 in the Cannon’s Build Materials Center Tournament at the LCSC Activity Center on Saturday night. 

The Warriors, 4-0 overall, went 2-0 in the tournament, which featured a pre-determined format. Carroll College, 4-2 overall, also won both of its games to give the Frontier Conference a 4-0 tournament mark against the two Cascade Conference schools. Carroll defeated Southern Oregon 78-55 in Saturday’s other contest. Southern Oregon is 0-2 on the season, while Cascade is 2-2. 

LCSC won its first three games by an average of 42 points, but couldn’t put Cascade away despite forcing 37 turnovers and holding the Thunderbirds to just 36 percent shooting from the field. 

The big problem for LCSC was a 17-of-57 shooting performance for 29.8 percent accuracy. The Warriors lacked patience most of the night offensively and rushed shots. 

Cascade led 7-2 and 9-4 as the Warriors managed only three baskets in the first nine minutes of the game. A three-point play by Gordy at the 7:52 mark gave LCSC the lead for good, but it could never put the game away. LCSC led by 12 points on two occasions in the second half, but Cascade rallied to cut the margin to five with less than five minutes remaining. The Warriors managed to get the lead back to 11, but Cascade cut it to six with two minutes left before LCSC put the game away. 

Gordy finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, both tying for game highs, and was named the MVP of the tournament. He was joined on the all-tournament team by teammate Napoleon Gordon, Carroll’s Eder Zuniga and Chad Vaculin, Cascade’s Eric Taylor, and Southern Oregon’s Jason Nunnemaker. 

Gordy went 6-of-12 from the field, 10-of-12 at the foul line, and added three steals, two blocked shots, and an assist. Teammate Jon Daly also had 10 rebounds. 

Gordon finished with 11 points, six steals and three rebounds. He had 11 steals in the tournament. 

Defensively, the Warriors had 17 steals and took Cascade out of its offense with the turnovers. Taylor led the Thunderbirds with 22 points, but he was only 8-of-21 from the field. Cascade was 18-of-50 on the night shooting. 

LCSC’s Mikel Watson and Dorian Watson, who had been combining to average nearly 30 points a game, were a combined 0-of-14 from the field and had four points, all at the foul line. 

The Warriors will play their third game in three days on Sunday when they travel to Pullman to meet 10th-ranked Washington State University in an exhibition contest at 4 p.m.

(Lewis-Clark State College pictured here with Brad Cannon)