BILLINGS, Mont. – The Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team saw its three-game win streak come to an end on the road on Saturday night. Despite a strong second half, the Warriors fell to Rocky Mountain College 75-65.
The loss brings LCSC to 16-9 overall and 5-6 in the Frontier Conference, while Rocky Mountain improves to 11-14 and 4-6. Despite leading them in the conference standings, the Warriors are now 0-2 against the Bears this year.
“They’re just a very long and athletic team, and we’ve struggled with those teams all year long,” said LCSC head coach Brandon Rinta.
Rocky’s Sergio Trocha had a double-double of 18 points and 14 rebounds to help RMC finish with a 43-37 lead in rebounds overall, including a 17-12 endge on the offensive end.
Rocky Mountain also benefitted from LCSC’s 18 turnovers.
“Some of them were unforced—some of them were from us over penetrating and some of them were just from us making poor decisions with the basketball,” said Rinta about his team’s turnovers. “But our guys never quit. We kept fighting and clawed our way back.”
After being down 40-31 at halftime, the Warriors were able to make it a two-point game late in the second half. After pulling off a 19-point comeback win against Carroll College on Thursday, the Warriors looked primed to do it again against Rocky.
“When we got down by two I think everyone believed we were going to do it again,” Rinta said. “But, they (the Bears) hit some big shots when they needed to.”
Darryl Alexander went 4-of-8 from 3-point territory to lead the game with 21 points and help Rocky Mountain finish with a 43.1 percent to 41.1 percent advantage in shooting.
PJ Bolte led the Warriors with 17 points and five rebounds, Jeray Key added a season-high 14 points, and Danny Marshall had 12 points and five boards. Donte Archie led with seven assists to go with seven points and five rebounds.
Next week LCSC will travel to Salt Lake City to face Westminster College. The Warriors fell to the Griffins 70-62 in a close game at home earlier this season.
“We have a week to regroup and we’ll head down to Westminster and hopefully we can pay them back for the loss they gave us on our home floor.”
