LEWISTON, Idaho – The fourth-ranked Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team bested No. 13 MSU-Northern 56-45 on Saturday night at the Activity Center in a battle of teams with contrasting styles.
The quick, athletic Warriors tried to push the pace at every opportunity, while the Lights purposefully got deep into the shot clock on each possession and attempted to slow the game way down.
LCSC (21-2, 7-2 Frontier Conference) executed its game plan a bit better down the stretch, and its reward was a spot alone atop the Frontier Conference.
The Warriors entered the game tied with MSU-Northern (18-5, 6-3) at 6-2 in conference play, but moved a game ahead of the Lights with Saturday’s win, its second over MSU-N in as many weeks.
Lewis-Clark State won at MSU-Northern on Jan. 19.
“There weren’t any secrets out on the floor tonight,” Warrior coach Brandon Rinta said. “We were calling out each other’s plays. We just got a few more stops late in the game and turned them over a few more times.”
There were 10 lead changes and two ties in the game, which in large part due to Northern’s deliberate style, turned into a meat grinder where each possession took on greater importance as the minutes ticked away.
The Warriors, in front of a season-high crowd of 1,521, went on the only extended run of the game midway through the second half, scoring four straight buckets to take an 11-point lead on Nick Fromm’s bucket with 6:48 left. That marked the largest lead for either team on the evening, and the first time either team pulled away from the other for an extended period.
The Lights cut the lead to five on a 3-pointer by Alfie Miller with 3:05 remaining, but P.J. Bolte scored a tough bucket inside after the squads exchanged turnovers.
Miller hoisted up an ill-advised 3-pointer early in the Lights’ next possession, and Donte Archie made two free throws to put LCSC back up nine with just under a minute left.
It was the second consecutive solid game for Archie, who had nine points, eight rebounds and two steals for the Warriors.
Bolte led LCSC with 13 points, and Danny Marshall tacked on 12 in the low-scoring affair.
“The two stats that stand out to me were the 12 offensive rebounds that we got, and the 16 turnovers we forced on them,” Rinta said.
Ten of those turnovers on MSU-Northern were committed in the second half, as the stakes rose.
“We still have a good chunk of league play left and a lot can happen, but this was a big win tonight,” Rinta said. “It’s big for us to sweep a team that’s ranked so high, and we hope they win out the rest of the way. It’ll only help our conference power rankings going into the postseason.”
The Warriors have just one game in each of the next two weeks, beginning with a trip to No. 22 Westminster this Saturday in Salt Lake City. LCSC beat the Griffins 80-75 in the Activity Center on Jan. 3.
