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Before Saturday's weighty contest with Montana State-Northern, the Lewis-Clark State women warmed up the VCR and studied some game footage. That scholarship was part of the impetus behind their 86-68 Frontier Conference victory at Warrior Gym.
And here's the unusual part: They were watching film of the 2002-03 Warriors.
With a performance that was, at times, LCSC's nattiest of the season, the nation's No. 24 team sailed past the Skylights. The Warriors hopped to 17-6 overall and 5-2 in conference, keeping them within reach of the FC penthouse.
L-C had played at a somewhat frantic pace in a less-than-pleasing victory over last-place Great Falls on Thursday. That was rarely a problem for last year's Warriors -- so this group decided to watch their tapes and see why.
"I don't think we were necessarily better last year, but we played with so much confidence," third-year LCSC coach Brian Orr said. "We came down, we moved the ball, we executed a little bit slower. We tried to get the feel today.
"We want to push it, we want to attack, but once we get there, (we want to) make teams play defense," he added. "You saw us get down in the shot clock more times today than we have all season long."
The Warriors' starting five was dynamite. They got 20-point bursts from Ashley Baker, who lorded over the paint, and Jessica Foot, who provided her usual crafty offense. Cami Kalbfleisch contributed 19, BreAnna Mulvey scored 15 and Kendra West registered nine points and 16 rebounds.
The visitors from Havre, Mont., were down by just a point with less than 12 minutes remaining. That's when L-C ripped off perhaps its finest five minutes of the year: The Warriors scored the next 17 points, putting the game out of reach.
Foot, a 5-7 senior guard, was the main figure in the jolt. After hitting two foul shots and a 3-pointer, she feathered a lefty scoop shot off the glass. (And that smooth bucket indirectly led to another point. MSUN's bench was called for a technical foul for, apparently, arguing too loudly that Foot had traveled. She then hit 1 of 2 free throws from the technical.)
"We got to a point where we needed big baskets," Orr said, "and Jess came through, Kendra came through, Ashley came through. It just seemed like it was one player after another."
NOTES -- Foot leaped Amanda Campbell (1995-99) to become L-C's No. 4 all-time scorer. She now has 1,466 points, and needs 11 more to overtake Brianne Kottwitz (1998-2002) for third.
MONTANA STATE-NORTHERN (14-10, 3-4)
Valgardson 1-6 1-2 3, Reome 9-21 0-0 25, Pullin 3-6 2-3 9, Bateman 4-12 2-2 12, Vermandel 2-4 0-0 4, Johnson 2-5 0-0 4, Lohse 0-0 0-0 0, Mohamed 0-0 0-0 0, Buffington 0-3 0-0 0, Heggem 0-2 0-0 0, Darlington 0-1 0-0 0, VanDyke 5-10 1-3 11. Totals 26-70 6-10 68.
LEWIS-CLARK STATE (17-6, 5-2)
Kalbfleisch 6-17 4-4 19, Mulvey 4-6 5-6 15, Foot 5-15 6-8 20, Baker 7-15 6-10 20, West 4-9 1-2 9, Wittmer 0-0 0-0 0, de Groot 1-2 1-2 3, Valle 0-2 0-0 0, McCauley 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-67 24-31 86.
Halftime score -- LCSC 41, MSUN 34. Three-point goals -- MSUN 10-27 (Reome 7-14, Pullin 1-4, Bateman 2-7, Buffington 0-1, Heggem 0-1); LCSC 8-27 (Kalbfleisch 3-12, Mulvey 1-2, Foot 4-11, West 0-2). Rebounds -- MSUN 34 (Bateman 6); LCSC 54 (West 16). Assists -- MSUN 19 (Bateman 5); LCSC 17 (Mulvey, West 4). Total fouls -- MSUN 21, LCSC 14. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- MSUN bench
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