March 4, 2008

Basketball teams hit the road for final weekend with titles on the line

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

After winning its third straight Frontier Conference regular season title and fifth overall, the Warriors will look to get back to familiar territory when they take part in the conference tournament starting Wednesday in Butte, Mont.

LCSC, which has made it to the championship game of the conference tournament in six of the past eight seasons, takes on No. 8 seed Great Falls Wednesday at 5 p.m., PDT in the opening round of the eight-team tournament.

The Warriors, ranked No. 10 in the country with a 24-4 record, finished conference play with a 13-1 mark. Its two-year record of 27-1 in conference play is a Frontier Conference record.

With the final NAIA poll coming out Wednesday and LCSC expected to remain in the Top 10, the Warriors are all but assured of their 12th trip to the NAIA national tournament in the last 13 years.

To win the conference tournament title, the Warriors will have to do it without the services of junior guard/forward Breianna Gaines, who suffered a knee injury in the regular-season finale against Rocky Mountain. Gaines did not make the trip to Butte and had an MRI scheduled on Tuesday to check the extent of the injury. Although she did not make the trip to the tournament, she may be able to play for the team at the national tournament.

LCSC had little trouble with Great Falls during the season, beating the Argos by 28 on the road, 90-62, and by 31 at home 70-39.

The conference tournament is set up so that the top two seeds play their first round games on Wednesday and, with victories, will take Thursday off before playing in the semifinals on Friday. Seed Nos. 3-6 must open the tournament on Thursday and play and win for three consecutive days in order to win the title.

The Warriors have four players averaging in double figures scoring, led by senior post Mandy Troutt, who is at 12.8 points and also a team best 7.1 rebounds. Jade Fulbright, the conference’s Player of the Week last week, and Sadie Short are both at 11.4 points, while Gaines is at 10.2 points.

Katie Hart leads the team in assists and has 572 during her career, which only trails Brianne Kottwitz’s all-time mark of 607. Fulbright is 11 steals away from tying Amanda Campbell’s program mark of 346. Fulbright is No. 11 in the country in steals per game at 3.2, while Hart is No. 23 in assists at 4.3 and No. 27 in steals at 2.5.

As a team, the Warriors rank in the NAIA’s Top 10 in several categories. LCSC is No. 2 in scoring margin, averaging 24.2 more points per game than opponents, and turnover margin, forcing 9.4 more turnovers per game. LCSC is No. 4 in total rebounding margin (8.1), scoring defense (54.9 points), and steals per game (14.3). LCSC is sixth in assist/turnover ratio (1.14), and seventh in assists per game (18.2).

Also, the Warriors are eighth in total rebound defense (32.6), and ninth in scoring offense per game (79.1) and field goal percentage defense (36.7).

The NAIA national tournament will be held March 19-25 at Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn. 

Frontier Conference tournament – Wednesday, March 5: #2 Carroll (23-4, 11-3) vs. #7 Montana Tech (11-17, 4-10), 1 p.m.; #1 Lewis-Clark State (13-1, 24-4) vs. #8 Great Falls (12-18, 3-11), 5 p.m. Thursday, March 6: #3 Westminster (23-7, 10-4) vs. #6 Rocky Mountain (11-19, 4-10), 1 p.m.; #4 Montana State-Northern (16-12, 6-8) vs. #5 Montana Western (17-12, 5-9), 5 p.m. Friday, March 7: Carroll-Montana Tech winner vs. Westminster-Rocky Mountain winner, 1 p.m.; LCSC-Great Falls winner vs. Montana St N-Montana Western winner, 5 p.m. Saturday, March 8: Championship, Friday’s winner at 4 p.m.urday, Mar 1

MEN’S BASKETBALL 

It may not have kicked in the front door to win the top spot in the conference tournament, but the Warriors will take it nonetheless.

After having what appeared to be its conference title hopes ruined in a loss to Carroll on Thursday, the Warrior bounced back with a win on Saturday, and combined with a Carroll victory over Westminster, the Warriors wound up in a four-way tie for first.

Based on head-to-head tiebreakers, LCSC emerged with the best record against the other three and earned the top spot in the conference tournament for the second straight season.

The Warriors open the tournament in Butte, Mont., at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night against No. 8 seed Montana Tech. LCSC is 19-6 overall, while Tech is 6-22, but will be playing in front of its hometown fans.  The two teams actually had a pair of close games this season with the Warriors winning by 10 on the road and then by four at home.

LCSC, Carroll, Westminster and Montana State-Northern all finished with identical 10-4 records, while Montana Tech is 9-5. LCSC is the only one of the five teams yet to reach the 20-win plateau. Depending on the final NAIA Top 25 poll on Wednesday, the conference could qualify as many as five teams for the 32-team national tournament, which will be held March 19-25 at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.

"The men's tournament is really up for grabs,” LCSC coach Tim Walker said.  “Carroll has been the hottest team in the league, and so maybe they are the favorite.  It takes a lot of mental toughness and solid play to go win three games in a row.  You have to limit mistakes, play great defense, and make plays.  There's no doubt it will be a great weekend of basketball."

Receiving a first or second seed in the conference tournament is big because those two teams play on Wednesday and if victorious, will get Thursday off before playing in the semifinals on Friday. The No. 3 and 4 seeds have to play Thursday, Friday and Saturday in order to win the title.

The Warriors won 13 of their last 17 games after starting the season 6-5.

Mike Gordy continues to lead LCSC in scoring at 20.6 points per game, while Brian Duckworth also is in double figures at 11.1 points. Gordy also leads the team in rebounding at 5.9 boards per game, while Jonathan Daly is at 5.6.

LCSC ranks fifth in the tournament in turnover margin, forcing 6.2 more per game than it commits. The Warriors are also seventh in steals per game (10.4), 14th in free-throw percentage (71.6 percent), and 17th in scoring margin (10.7 points).

Gordy is fifth in the country in field goal percentage at 59.8 percent and is ninth in scoring. Napoleon Gordon is ninth in steals per game at 2.5, while Brian Duckworth is 18th at 2.3 

Frontier Conference pairings – Wednesday, March 5: #2 Montana State-Northern (20-8, 10-4) vs. #7 Great Falls (8-18, 2-12), 3 p.m. #1 Lewis-Clark State (19-9, 10-4) vs. #8 Montana Tech (6-22, 2-12), 7 p.m. Thursday, March 6: #3 Carroll (22-7, 10-4) vs. #6 Montana Western  (10-18, 3-11), 3 p.m.; #4 Westminster (20-6, 10-4) vs. #5 Rocky Mountain (21-8, 9-5), 7 p.m. Friday, March 7; Carroll-Western winner vs. Northern-Great Falls winner 3 p.m.; LCSC-Tech winner vs. Westminster-Rocky winner, 75 p.m. Saturday, March 8: Championship, Friday’s winner at 6 p.m. 

BASEBALL

The Warriors are one inning away from doing something they have only done once in the past decade when they play host to Dixie State, an NCAA Division II school from St. George, Utah, in a three-game series starting Friday at LCSC’s Harris Field.

LCSC has not committed an error in its last three ballgames and has a streak of 29 consecutive errorless innings. Dating back to 1998, the Warriors have reached 30 consecutive errorless innings in 2002 and also had 29 consecutive innings in 2005. LCSC has not made an error since the seventh inning of a game against Western Oregon.

LCSC has committed 18 errors in 14 games this season.

The Warriors, 12-2 overall and ranked No. 1 in the NAIA, are riding a six-game win streak into the series, which opens with a 6 p.m. contest on Friday, and follows with a 2 p.m. game on Saturday, and then at noon on Sunday. LCSC is 3-0 against NCAA Division II teams this season, and 2-0 against NCAA Division I squads after defeating both the University of Washington and Gonzaga last week.

Junior outfielder Paul Martin leads the regulars with a .432 batting average and 14 RBI on the season. He also is tied for the team lead with Ikaika Lester and Kyle Greene in home runs with two.

Bernard  Pena (.429), Zach Adam (.417) and Chris Lum (.400) are battling for more playing time after starting the season off hot at the plate. Brent Wyatt is at .395 and has 11 RBI, while Lester is at .356 and 13 RBI. Lester also leads the team in doubles with six.

The Warriors are hitting .330 as a team, compared to .217 for opponents. The Warriors have outscored opponents 105-48 and have 46 extra-base hits to 23 for opponents. LCSC also is 10-of-13 in stolen base attempts, compared to 5-of-13 for opponents.

Junior right-hander Matt Fitts is 3-0 on the season with a 3.48 earned run average, while Michael Guerrero, Ryan Woods, and Nick Masters are 2-0. Among the regulars, Brad Schwarzenbach has the top ERA at 1.08, followed by Guerrero at 1.50, and Justin mace at 1.88. Mace picked up two saves last week and leads the team with three, while Blaine hardy has two.

The Warrior pitching staff has an team ERA of 2.95 and has allowed 99 hits in 125 innings. The staff has struck out 127 and walked 53.

Following this weekend, the Warriors hit the road to start the Region I portion of its schedule, which kicks off Tuesday in Caldwell against College of Idaho.