GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Thanks to good shooting in the first half and good defense in both halves, the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team snapped a four-game skid with a 67-57 win over the University of Great Falls on Saturday night.
Led by the strokes of Derek Gianukakis and Jared Giammona the Warriors shot 53 percent in from the field in the first half to lead 48-33 at the break. The Warriors’ shooting cooled down in the second period, but an active defense helped keep the game in their control.
“The guys play really hard this weekend, and got rewarded with a win tonight,” LCSC assistant coach Tim Collins said. “Any win on the road is a good win.”
The Warriors are now 12-11 on the season and 3-6 in Frontier Conference play, while the Argos fall to 6-17 and 2-7. LCSC will look to get a win streak going as they host Montana Tech on Thursday and the University of Montana Western on Saturday. The Warriors defeated Tech 66-54 but fell to Western 86-66 on the road earlier this season. Both games tip-off at 8 p.m.
Every player on the Warriors’ roster scored four points or more on Saturday with Gianukakis led the way with 14. Giammona and Daniel Williams were the only other Warriors in double-digits as they both scored 10 apiece. Gianukakis was 4-of-7 and Giammona was 2-of-4 from behind the 3-point line.
“A lot of the open looks we got in the first half were because of the energy we had on defense,” said Collins.
Both teams shot a decent percentage in the game (LCSC shot 42.6 percent, while UGF shot 41.2), but LCSC was benefited by a lot better ball control. Lewis-Clark State committed 11 turnovers, while Great Falls committed 20.
The Argos were also hurt by a poor performance at the foul line, as they made just 9-of-22 attempts for 40.9 percent on the night. The Warriors didn’t fare too well at the foul line either as they went 13-of-24 (54.2 percent), however, many of the free throws they missed were late in the game and only affected the final margin of victory.
While the points were spread out fairly evenly on LCSC’s roster, Kevin Harris and L.J. Jones did the bulk of the scoring for UGF. Harris collected 20 points and five rebounds, while Jones had 17 points and eight rebounds.
JayTee Tarpley led Great Falls with 10 rebounds to go with his eight points, while James Craft’s six rebounds stood as LC’s team-high. The Argos had a 41-33 rebounding advantage overall.
