MOSCOW, Idaho – Playing in its third game in three days, and against its third straight NCAA Division I opponent, the odds of the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team coming away with a win against the University of Idaho in an exhibition game on Saturday seemed to be slim—the 2010-11 version of the Warriors don’t seem to care much about odds though.
LCSC fell to the University of Montana on Thursday night, was soundly defeated by Washington State University on Friday night, but was within six points of the Vandals with less than five minutes on Saturday. In the end, the Warriors fell to Idaho by a final score of 70-59.
“This was kind of a litmus test for us,” LCSC head coach Tim Walker said about playing back-to-back-to-back games against strong opponents. “It’s given us a chance to see what our team plays like under adversity, and I was real proud of how our guys kept competing.”
The Warriors trailed by as many as 14 multiple times during the first half, but were able to cut the lead to single digits late in the second half.
“We didn’t play with much energy in the first half,” Walker said. “but in the second, we started playing with a lot more enthusiasm and energy.”
The worn out Warriors seemed to gain energy in the second half as a result of more of their shots starting to fall in. The Warriors shot only 25.8 percent in the first half, but hit 45.5 percent of their attempts and outscored the Vandals 40-39 in the second.
Senior Donnie Lao played a major role in the second half push as he drained 13 second half points and finished with a team high 17 in the game. Warrior center Donte Roberts also came up big down the stretch as he scored nine in the second half and had 11 points overall to go with eight rebounds.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Lao, and a couple jumpers from Roberts inside helped trim the Vandal lead from 49-35 with 12:25 to play to 56-50 with 4:28 on the clock.
Idaho’s answer came in the form of a couple of key 3-pointers, and continued dominance on the boards.
“They’re so big,” said Walker of Idaho’s roster which features five players 6-foot-8 or taller. “The second chance points really killed us.”
The Vandals outrebounded LC 47-32, and came away with 17 offensive rebounds which resulted in a 26-9 advantage in second chance points.
Without the extra chances in the first half, the half time score of 31-19 could have been much closer as the Warriors’ ball pressure was limiting Idaho’s scoring chances.
Idaho committed 17 turnovers in the game including 11 in the first half. The Warriors finished with eight steals, and had 12 turnovers of their own.
Devon Adams led LC with four steals, and Alex King added three.
Brandon Wiley led the Vandals with 18 points and 10 rebounds. He was aided by Deremy Geiger who had 17 points on a 5-of-9 night from 3-point territory, and by Shawn Henderson who had 13 points and a 7-of-7 clip at the foul line.
Overall, Idaho was 23-of-52 (44.2 percent) from the field and 6-of-17 (35.3) from behind the arc. LCSC was 23-of-64 (35.9) overall and 5-of-18 from the perimeter (27.8). At the foul line, Idaho was 18-of-30 (60 percent), while LCSC was 8-of-14 (57.1).
The Warriors will play their first non-exhibition game of the season on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. against Portland Bible College in Portland, Ore. Then on Wednesday they’ll stay in Portland and face Warner Pacific College at 7:30 p.m.
