L-C upends
Montana-Western; Career-best performance
from Yancheva pushes Warriors to 71-61
victory in pairing of FC leaders
Copyright The Trib
1-27-06
DILLON, Mont.
-- With momentum slipping away, Katya
Yancheva's long-range shooting rescued
Lewis-Clark State, guiding the Warriors to a
71-61 Frontier Conference women's basketball
victory over fifth-ranked Montana-Western on
Friday night.
The big win
gives ninth-ranked L-C (19-2, 6-0) a leg up
in the league race. Montana-Western (19-3,
5-1) came into the contest tied for first
with the Warriors.
Yancheva
came off the bench and drained four
3-pointers after UMW tied the game at 44-all
midway through the second half. She finished
with a career-high 17 points.
"It was
definitely her best game (of her career),"
L-C coach Brian Orr said of the Sofia,
Bulgaria, native. "She hit some absolutely
huge shots."
The
Warriors won despite being outrebounded
(41-34) for the first time this year. They
came into the game leading the NAIA in
rebounding margin (plus-13.2 per game).
"It seemed
like they got all the bounces," Orr said.
"We had a hard time getting our hands on the
ball."
But L-C
made up for the lack of success on the
boards with tough defense. Using a variety
of schemes, the club held the Bulldogs to
35.6 percent field-goal shooting. UMW made
just 6 of 26 shots (23 percent) from the
3-point line.
Megan
Schmitz, Western's dangerous scorer, dropped
in 16, but connected on only 5 of 18 shots.
"We really
defended," Orr said. "That was the
difference."
L-C jumped
out to a 13-point halftime lead, but UMW
came out of the break on fire. After
Yancheva's outburst, though, the Bulldogs
never got closer than two points.
Katie Hart
added 11 points for L-C, while Ashley Baker
had 10.
The
Warriors will play Montana Tech at 5 p.m.
PST today in Butte.
LEWIS-CLARK
STATE (19-2, 6-0)
Hart 2-4
6-6 11, Fulbright 2-6 1-2 8, Baker 4-8 2-5
10, Kalbfleisch 0-6 0-0 0, Morrison 3-7 0-3
9, Wittmer 1-3 1-2 4, Preston 1-1 0-0 3,
Yancheva 6-9 1-3 17, West 1-3 2-2 4. Totals
23-51 17-25 71.
MONTANA-WESTERN (19-3, 5-1)
O'Neil 6-9
4-6 16, Sunwall 6-9 2-4 14, Schmitz 5-18 3-6
16, Kain 1-7 0-1 3, Suhr 2-8 2-2 8, Scott
0-2 0-0 0, Shea 1-5 0-0 2, Day 0-0 0-0 0,
Behrent 0-1 2-2 2, Rucker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
21-59 13-21 61.
Halftime --
LCSC 35, UMW 22. 3-point goals -- LCSC 8-21
(Hart 1-1, Fulbright 0-1, Kalbfleisch 0-6,
Wittmer 1-3, Preston 1-1, Yancheva 4-6,
Nelson 1-3); UMW 6-26 (Kain 1-3, Schmitz
3-13, Suhr 2-7, Scott 0-1, Shea 0-2). Fouled
out -- Fulbright. Rebounds -- LCSC 34
(Fulbright 5); UMW 41 (Sunwall 11). Assists
-- LCSC 11 (Hart, Baker, Morrison 3); UMW 14
(Suhr 4). Total fouls -- LCSC 18, UMW 17.
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