HELENA, Mont. – Andy Garland and Carroll College’s defense was just too much for the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team to handle on the road on Saturday night. The Warriors hit two 3-pointers in the final minute and came close to pulling off a miraculous comeback but ended up falling to the Saints 82-77.
Despite trailing by 12 at halftime, and by as many as 19 in the second half, the Warriors never gave up and cut the lead to three in the final minute.
It was 76-69 with under a minute remaining until Jared Giammona drove and banked a layup off the glass to make it 77-71 with 30 seconds left. The Warriors then fouled and, after Carroll made one of the double-bonus free throws, they quickly brought the ball back up the court where David Johnson missed a 3-pointer but gather his own rebound, took a step back behind the line, and sunk a trey to make it 78-74 with six seconds remaining.
LCSC, which was ranked No. 21 in the latest NAIA poll, then fouled again and, after Carroll made both free throws, threw the ball up court and found Giammona who nailed another 3-pointer to make it 80-77 with two seconds left.
The Warriors then fouled Garland with one second on the clock—and he sunk both free throws. Giammona followed this with a last second half-court heave which did nothing to narrow the lead in the game, yet was the perfect example of the Warriors’ perseverance and die-hard attitude Saturday.
Garland, a 6-foot-5 junior, finished with 32 points and 13 rebounds and was a dominant defensive force on the inside as he had two blocks and contested the majority of LCSC’s shots down low.
Despite Garland, however, the Warriors ended up outscoring Carroll 34-26 in the paint and 13-7 in second chance points.
David Johnson led the Warriors with 17 points and four rebounds, Jared Giammona had 12 points and four boards, Donte Roberts had eight points and a team-high eight rebounds, and Alex King had eight points and six rebounds.
Carroll, which also received 13 points apiece from Tony Dalton and Byago Diouf, outrebounded LCSC 38-31 overall and narrowly outshot the Warriors 45.3 percent to 44.4 percent.
Lewis-Clark State had only 12 turnovers to Carroll’s 16 and stacked up pretty evenly in all statistical categories, but a major difference in the game was at the foul line. Carroll made 28-of-38 (73.7 percent) attempts at the line, while LCSC was 15-of-26 (57.7).
Despite the loss, the Warriors stand at 13-4 overall and 3-1 in league play which keeps them on top of the Frontier Conference standings.
The win brings the Saints to 12-4 and 2-1.
The Warriors will face another formidable foe next Saturday when they travel to Salt Lake City to play No. No. 12 Westminster.
