2000-01 Men's Basketball
Lewis-Clark State College
Lewiston, Idaho

Lewis-Clark State Men’s Basketball Inks Six Players from Eastern Washington Area

Lewiston, ID-The Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball program announced the signing of six players for the 2001-02 season. Five of the six players are from the Spokane, WA area.

From the junior college ranks, Chris Allen and Nick Bemis of Spokane Community College will join the Warriors. Andre Atkins and Jon DeWolfe come to Lewiston via Walla Walla Community College. High school signees are Casey Franklin from Mount Spokane and Lance Pecht from West Valley.

Allen is a 6-1 guard who was a first-team All-Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) selection after averaging 14 points per game and dished out five assists per game, this past season, in leading the Sasquatch to the NWAACC title. Allen was also selected the Most Inspirational in the 1999-2000 NWAACC Tournament. He was named first-team All-State and the Most Valuable Player in the Greater Spokane League (GSL) in 1998 at North Central High.

Bemis, a 6-2 wing, joins Allen from Spokane CC. He was known as a "defensive stopper" for the Sasquatch. Bemis averaged 8.3 ppg and shot an outstanding 87% from the free throw line. He is a product of Central Valley High in Spokane. Bemis spent last year at Washington State University, but sat out.

Atkins, a 6-3 wing, is a long-range bomber from Walla Walla CC. He connected on close to 40% of his shots from long distance and averaged just under ten points per game. As a senior at Ferris High, Atkins was named first-team All-State and All-GSL. He helped lead Ferris to a second-place finish in the Washington State 4A Tournament in 1999.

DeWolfe is a 6-2 guard that attended WWCC after transferring from the University of Washington. He averaged 16 ppg, six rpg, and 5.8 apg. DeWolfe was named to the NWACC All-Star Team and earned first-team Eastern Region honors. He saw limited action at UW. DeWolfe led Walla Walla High to the State 4A Championship in 1999 and was named first-team All-State and All-Big Nine as a senior.

Pecht is a 6-4 wing from West Valley High School in Spokane. This past season, he was selected to the 3A All-State Team and was also the MVP of the Border League. He is a two-time member of the first-team All-Border League. The past two years, Pecht has led the league in scoring, averaging 22 ppg, and has also average seven rpg.

Franklin is a 6-2 shooting guard from Mount Spokane High in Mead, WA. He was the captain this past season and helped lead the team to the State 4A Tournament. Franklin earned Honorable Mention GSL accolades after averaging 12 ppg and five apg.

"The obvious common fiber to these new additions to our Warrior team is the geographic proximity," said Lewis-Clark State College’s men’s basketball coach, George Pfeiffer. "What is the most important commonality is the success each of them has experienced in their basketball careers. If "success breeds success" is true, then this most recent crop of signees should be an outstanding addition to our revamped roster this next year. Although the common thread is that they are all perimeter players, each individual has unique characteristics that vary somewhat from each other. We like the fact that when we rotate players into the game, our opponents are not matching up to a clone. This group gives us this added variable."