LEWISTON, ID-Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball coach George Pfeifer released the 2001-02 schedule, Monday, September 24th. The Warriors will play 30 regular-season games, including four tournaments, and games at NCAA Division I members, Washington State University and Boise State University, and then the post-season Frontier Conference Tournament in Butte, MT.

"Once again, we have put together a non-conference gauntlet that will certainly challenge this year’s team, that finds us with 80% of the roster new to our program.," said Pfiefer. "We have a stretch from Thanksgiving until the first week in December that finds us playing six games in nine days, all out on the road, all against teams rich with successful traditions. That experience will no doubt check the level of both our physical toughness and mental toughness. We have always believed it is more important to set our pre-conference schedule to prepare our team with difficult game scenarios and excellent teams, versus padding our win and loss record playing a soft schedule. We also believe that non-conference tournaments get you ready for post-season play thus we find ourselves in four tournaments, counting our own, which we will run as a classic. On the up side, counting our exhibition games, we will end up with 14 home games which is about the most we have had in our gym in some time."

The Warriors open the year by hosting Pro Hoops Australia, in an exhibition game, on November 6th. L-C will open the regular-season on November 15th at Washington State. The Warriors almost knocked off the Cougars last year, losing 70-67. The Clearwater River Casino/KOZE Tournament will be played November 23rd and 24th, at Warrior Gymnasium, and will serve as the home opener for LCSC. The tournament will be played in a classic format with L-C taking on The Evergreen State College on Friday night, and then play host to Lewis & Clark College, on Saturday night.

After that, LCSC becomes the "Road Warriors". They travel to Klamath Falls, Oregon to play in the tough Oregon Tech Tournament, a three-day event. L-C opens with Cal State-Hayward, then will play Notre Dame de Namur University, and finish with the host school, Oregon Tech. Tech finished #3 in the final NAIA II poll and were an Elite Eight team in the National Championships. Notre Dame de Namur finished ranked #13 and made it to the second round of the NAIA II Tournament.

From there, the Warriors will play at Boise State University, December 5th. The Broncos have had ten winning seasons in its last eleven years and have joined the Western Athletic Conference. L-C will follow that by playing in the Albertson College Tournament, and opening against the host school, December 7th. The Coyotes are coming off of a NAIA II Final Four appearance. Also in the tournament are Southern Alberta Tech of Calgary and Westminster College of Salt Lake City.

The Warriors return home for four more games, starting December 14th. Capilano College of North Vancouver, BC enters Warrior Gym on the 14th while Southern Alberta Tech will play L-C on the 15th and 16th. The University of Puget Sound will close out the homestand on December 18th.

Lewis-Clark State then goes to Seattle Pacific University for the Oak Harbor Freightlines Classic, December 28th and 29th. The Warriors open with Seattle University on the first night, and will then play the Falcons of Seattle Pacific, a team that beat the Warriors 99-68 in Lewiston, last year.

LCSC closes out non-conference play on New Year’s Eve against Walla Walla College, a game played at 5:30 PM.

The conference season kicks off January 3rd at the University of Great Falls. The first home Frontier Conference game will be January 10th, when they host the University of Montana-Western, at 8:00 PM.

The Frontier Conference Tournament will be held February 27th through March 2nd, and the NAIA Division I National Championships will be held March 13th through the 19th in Kansas City, Missouri.

Lewis-Clark State finished 17-13 last year with an 8-6 record in conference play. The Warriors lost to Westminster College, 89-88, in the semifinals of the conference tournament.

Click here to see the entire schedule.