LEWISTON, Idaho – Three Lewis-Clark State College scorers eclipsed the 20-point mark as the fifth-ranked Warriors ran away from Multnomah University in a wild 133-94 festival of offense on Tuesday night at the Activity Center.
It was the third-most points scored by an LCSC offense in program history, trailing the record of 178 put up by the Warriors in a 1989-90 victory over Simpson. LCSC also scored 135 points against Sheldon Jackson in the 1985-86 season.
Multnomah (9-16) got the game they wanted against the Warriors (22-3), as the Lions attempted 43 3-pointers. The Lions came into the game averaging 87.6 points per game, and were not shy about hoisting up shots early in possessions.
Lewis-Clark State is certainly a more deliberate offensive team, but showed the versatility to play a very different style successfully on Tuesday.
“You have no choice but to play that way against them,” Warrior coach Brandon Rinta said. “They don’t let you run sets and put you in a lot of 3-on-2 situations on the break. It was a lot of back-and-forth offense, but we’ll take the win.”
The Lions attempting so many 3-pointers generated a lot of long rebounds that enabled the Warriors to get out in transition in a hurry. LCSC shared the ball on the break, racking up 41 assists, a total second only to the 47 attained in the win over Simpson in the Warrior record book.
Jacob Champoux led LC offensively with 26 points on 9-for-14 shooting, and drained 7-of-9 attempts from beyond the arc, and fell just short of Bob Sobotta’s record of nine triples made in a game set in 1987-88.
P.J. Bolte added 22 points on 11-for-17 shooting, and Nick Fromm tacked on 21 in a 9-for-11 performance from the floor.
Overall, the Warriors shot 58.8 percent from the field against Multnomah.
“Our guys were very unselfish all night,” Rinta said.
Ellis had an especially unique stat line for the Warriors, barely missing out on a double-double without scoring a point in an 11 rebound, nine-assist effort.
David Walker led Multnomah with 24 points, and was successful on 6-for-16 attempts from downtown. For the game, the Lions were 19-for-51 (37.3 percent) from 3-point range.
The Warriors head back out on the road in Frontier Conference play this weekend when they travel to Montana Tech on Saturday night.
The Orediggers gave LCSC everything it could handle in the matchup in Lewiston on Dec. 23, but Champoux hit a jumper with less than two seconds remaining to give the Warriors a 65-63 win.
“You can make a case for them deserving to beat us here, but we got just enough buckets and stops to get the win,” Rinta said. “Nobody’s forgotten that, and we know it will be a very tough game.”
