Drew Arnold tied his season high with 25 points and helped the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team control the paint as the Warriors cruised to a 68-47 win over Montana Tech in Frontier Conference play at the LCSC Activity Center on Saturday night.
Two days after getting dominated inside in a loss to Montana Western, the Warriors rebounded nicely with perhaps their best overall game of the season to improve to 8-6 overall and 2-2 in conference play, while Montana Tech falls to 8-10 and 1-3.
LCSC suffered a 91-73 setback to the Orediggers in a nonconference game in early December in Butte, but the defensive clamps on Tech for a much different outcome this time. The Orediggers were just 18-of-62 from the field for 29 percent and 5-of-24 from the 3-point line for 20.8 percent.
Arnold, a 6-foot-10 senior transfer from Weber State, was simply too much for Tech. He was 12-of-18 from the field and four of the buckets came on dunks. He also added eight rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal.
Arnold scored six of LCSC’s first eight points and had 14 in the first half as the Warriors took a 32-25 halftime lead. LCSC scored six of the first eight points of the second half, but Tech was still able to cut the lead to seven twice.
Arnold, however, answered with a 3-point shot and Brian Duckworth made a pair of 3-pointers during an 14-4 run midway through the second half, which gave LCSC plenty of breathing room and the Warriors were able to close out the game for the win and snap a two-game losing streak.
LCSC coach Tim Walker said he got after the team after Thursday night’s setback. He said the challenged the team to respond, especially on the defensive end.
Walker pointed to the defensive play of Tanner McIntosh and Andrew Packwood, who held Tech’s leading scorer Josh Monagle fairly well in check. Monagle scored 13 points, but was only 5-of-14 from the field. He also finished just 3-of-8 at the foul line.
Duckworth just missed a double-double for LCSC. The 6-2 senior guard had 18 points and a game-high nine rebounds. He finished 3-of-6 from the 3-point arc and also had four steals.
Freshman point guard Terrell Wallace added seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.
LCSC had a 38-31 rebounding edge and a 32-20 advantage on points scored in the paint.
Montana Tech did force 23 turnovers and converted those turnovers into 26 points. Monagle was the only Tech player with more than eight points.
The Warriors return to action on Thursday night when they travel to Billings, Mont., to face Rocky Mountain at 7 p.m.
