From the Lewiston Morning Tribune 4/28/03:

Lewiston Morning Tribune
P.O. Box 957
Lewiston, ID 83501
Phone: (208) 743-9411
Fax: (208) 746-7341

4/28/03:

LCSC Men’s basketball players honored  

The Lewis-Clark State College Warriors Men’s Basketball team would like to announce that Senior Brian Meneely and Junior Jason Hansen were named to the 2003 NAIA Dakota Academic All-American Team.  This is the second time Meneely has been selected for this honor.  Hansen is a Criminal Justice major and Meneely is a Secondary Education/Math major.  The LCSC Men’s Basketball team has had 12 recipients of this award over the past four years.

Head Coach George Pfeifer had this to say: “We are extremely proud of the academic accolades our program has seen lately.  Both Brian and Jason were critical to our winning 23 games this year.  Brian is only the second person in the history of LCSC Warriors Men’s Basketball at our institution to garner this honor twice.  Without question both these young men are very deserving and we are very proud of their accomplishments.”

4/29/03:

LCSC Men’s Basketball Signs Seven

 The Lewis-Clark State College Men’s Basketball program made another haul this year by signing seven players.  Coming off a 23-10 year the Warriors lose a stellar class of players, however the new incoming players on paper appear to have the background and accolades to continue to move the program in a positive direction.

The following are this year’s signed players:

Danny Allen:  5’10 Guard – Dallas, TX.  Allen, sat out this year, but played the previous season as a starting guard on the national power house San Jacinto JC team in Pasadena, TX.  On this team that year, San Jac finished 30-2 winning the Texas JC league championship, Allen averaged 17.2 PPG.  Prior to coming to San Jacinto he played his freshman year at Seminole State JC in Oklahoma where he was named first team in the Sooner JC conference leading his team to a 26-4 record.  Allen hails from Lincoln High School in Dallas and as a senior in high school averaged 22 PPG, which earned him First Team All-State in the 6A classification in Texas.  Allen will be a junior for the Warriors.

Joey Ray:  5’11 Guard from Heltonville, IN.  Ray sat out this year and played the previous year at Vincennes JC in Indiana.  Prior to Vincennes he played his freshman year at NCAA Div I Lamar University, in Beaumont, TX. During his time at nationally known Vincennes JC he averaged 17 PPG, connecting on 41% of his 3-point shots making 106 on the year.  That team finished with a 21-11 record.  He also made 81% of his free throw attempts and dished out 3.5 assists per game.  While at Lamar University during his freshman year; he led the team in scoring with 11.9 PPG, shooting 40% from 3-point range making 59. Ray prepped at Bedford High School where he averaged 22 PPG.  He scored 40 and 38 points respectively leading his team to the Indiana state Sectional and Regional games.  He was voted his leagues MVP and played in the prestigious Indiana – Kentucky High School All-Star game.

JC Howe:  6’6 #215 from Roy, Utah.  Howe is transferring to the Warriors after playing his junior year at NCAA Div I Tennessee Martin in the Ohio Valley Conference.  Howe averaged 13.9 PPG this past year and 6.2 RPG shooting 50.7%; he also led the team in steals with 2.1 per game.  He started 24 of 28 games leading his team in scoring on 8 different occasions and rebounding 12 times.  On February 24^th he was named the Newcomer of the Week, when he scored 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting in a loss to Morehead State and 20 points in a win over Eastern Kentucky, that weekend he was 5 of 6 from the 3-point line.  Howe, who played two years at Glendive JC in Dawson, MT, was an all Region IX selection scoring 16 PPG and grabbing 8 RPG.  His senior year at Roy High School, which is on the out skirts of Ogden, saw him average 19 PPG and 10 RPG.  He was instrumental in his high school team winning 3 straight Utah Regional titles.  Howe is married to his wife Kara.

James Idoko:  6’6 #225 from Otukpo, Nigeria.  Idoko took this past year off having played for the 2001-02 Warriors.  He will come back to the Warriors as a Junior.  This College of Southern Idaho transfer was a crowd favorite a year ago when he averaged 12.0 PPG shooting a team high 63.5% to go with 5.7 rebounds per game.  An extremely athletic forward Idoko was and will be remembered for his acrobatic dunks and blocked shots.

Danny Ball:  6’2 Guard from Evanston, WY.  Ball is coming to the Warriors after playing the past two years at Great Falls University.  He transferred to GFU, after playing his freshman year at Northwest College in Powell, WY.  He has been the leading scoring at GFU the past two years averaging 18.8 PPG this year knocking down 69 3-point shots and shooting and amazing 157 of 175 from the foul line for an 89.9% average which ranked him 3^rd in the country this past year. His sophomore year he ranked 2^nd in the country in free throw shooting on 99-112 for 88.4%. Ball was named Honorable Mention all Frontier Conference this past year.  Of note in both games against the Warriors he dropped in an even 24 points in each of their games.  The Warriors are looking to red shirt Ball this year.  He is an NAIA Academic All-American bringing a 4.00 GPA from GFU.

Chris Pitts:  6’8 #215 Forward from Hillsboro, OR.  Pitts is finishing his senior year of High School at Glencoe.  This past season he averaged 12.5 PPG and 6.7 RPG to go with 4.5 assists per game.  He was selected to the 2^nd team All-Metro League this past season.  A left hander Pitts can shoot the ball from 3-point range and function next to the basket.  A 3.8 GPA and a member of the National Honor Society, Pitts is a long athletic forward with tremendous up side.

Jared Tikker:  6’6 #205 Forward from Nine Mile Falls, WA.  Tikker, whose dad used to coach basketball at Spokane CC, is finishing up at Lakeside High School.  He was twice named to the 1^st team Great Northern League and helped his team reach the Washington State tournament the past two years.  This past year he averaged 14.9 PPG and 9.7 RPG while making almost 55% of his shots.  Tikker carries a 3.9 GPA and finished 2^nd in the state in the high jump his junior year.

Head Coach George Pfeifer had this to say about this year’s recruiting class:  “We could not be more pleased with this years recruiting class, on paper it would be hard to argue it is not one of our best since I have been coaching here.  They are all quality basketball players and people.  Without question we lost a tremendous amount of talent and quality at the end of this season, however we very much like the returning core of players and the influx of new and talented players who will be in uniform with them next year.  Allen and Ray come from two extremely high powered JC’s, and not only did they play, they were leaders on their perspective teams.  Any one that understands the national junior college scene will not have to read between any lines in evaluating their potential to our program.  Howe brings in extremely impressive numbers from Tennessee Martin.  What is most eye catching is his statistics and production got stronger as the year went on.  We were told he was the runner up to the New Comer of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference.  With Idoko there is no mystery.  He could be one of the best athletes to wear a uniform since I have been coaching at LC.  Ball is also going to be no mystery once he plays for us.  We tried everything on him last year and he still managed to hit us for a couple dozen points in each of our meetings.  Finally we are juiced up about Pitts and Tikker.  They were two young men that had numerous choices and selected us.  Both have the physical maturity to compete for time right away.  There is no question they can play, but what stands out is the intangibles they bring to our program.  When I and my assistants place all the names from our roster on the grease board together, it is hard not to get a little excited about next year.”