Lewis-Clark State downs Carroll 70-60 to take Frontier Championship

3-8-08

BUTTE, Montana – After a back-and-forth first half, the Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team came out strong in the second half and never looked back to defeat Carroll College 70-60 on Saturday to win the Frontier Conference Tournament championship. 

The win marks LCSC’s first conference tournament championship since 2001—a year in which Warriors made it to the semifinals of the NAIA national tournament—their best finish in school history. This also stands as coach Brian Orr’s first Frontier tournament championship since he began coaching the Warriors in the 2001-2002 season. Orr’s team will be making its12th trip to the NAIA national tournament in the last 13 years. 

After losing to Carroll in the semifinals 86-83 in the 2006 tournament, and 71-69 in the title game last year, the Warriors might have had a little bit of revenge in mind going into Saturday’s game.  

The Warriors scored 19 points of off 23 Carroll turnovers, while turning the ball over to Carroll only 13 times. LCSC also out-shot Carroll 40-percent to 36-percent from the field, and from the perimeter LCSC hit 6-of-10 while Carroll, one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation, hit only 3-of-13.  

LCSC, ranked No. 10 in the nation, improves its season record to 27-4, while No. 13 Carroll drops to 26-5. Carroll has gone 12-3 in its last 15 games—all three losses have come against the Warriors.  

Lewis-Clark State shot 39-percent from the field to Carroll’s 38-percent during the first half, but forced 12 turnovers to gain a 28-25 lead at halftime after a number of lead changes.    

As was the case in both LCSC wins over Carroll during the season, the Warriors did a great job of guarding Jolene Fuzesy—ranked first in the NAIA in 3-point field goal percentage and second in 3-point field goals made. Fuzesy ended the game with 10 points, but was not allowed one 3-point attempt.  

In the second half, spearheaded by Jade Fulbright and Kim Preston, the Warriors never lost the lead. Fulbright, whose primary duty was to guard Fuzesy, scored 14 points in the second half to end the game with 18. On the night, she went 6-for-6 from the foul line, and collected three steals which puts her only one away from tying LCSC’s all-time career steal mark going into the national tournament.  

Preston ended the game with 12 points off of 4-of-6 shooting from behind the 3-point line. Possibly one of her most important shots came with just over three minutes left in the game when she gathered an offensive rebound and sunk a 3 to extend LCSC’s lead to double digits for the first time in the game at 60-50. 

Mandy Troutt ended the game with 11 points, six rebounds, and a key blocked shot in the second half. Sadie Short added 10 points and six rebounds before fouling late in the game, and Katie Hart, Vanessa West, Kenna Reiter, and Lacie Titmus all finished with four points apiece. Nichole Miller, who came off the bench in the second half and hit her only shot of the game—a 3-pointer with only a few seconds left on the shot clock—finished with three points. 

Both teams now wait for the NAIA’s announcement of the 32-team field and tournament seeds. Seeding is based on the final season rankings, and conference tournament finishes. Tournament pairings are scheduled to be announced on Wednesday. The NAIA national tournament will be held March 19-25 at Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn.