A double downer for Warriors; Fuzesy's trey lifts Carroll women to 58-57 victory, the first loss by an L-C team at Activity Center
Copyright The Trib

2-4-06

Until the Activity Center meets a wrecking ball decades from now, it will be remembered that the Lewis-Clark State basketball teams went more than a year before suffering their first loss there.

And the way the winning streak ended also deserves some reminiscences.

With the LCSC women sitting on a two-point lead, which was provided by three Aundrea Morrison buckets, Carroll sophomore Jolene Fuzesy drained a 3-pointer from the left elbow with 4.6 seconds left. That hoisted the 14th-ranked Saints to a 58-57 Frontier Conference triumph Saturday night.

This outcome snapped two monumental streaks. The L-C men and women had been a combined 34-0 at their new building, which officially opened Jan. 6, 2005. And the Warrior women, ranked sixth, saw their string of 15 wins interrupted.

A crowd of approximately 1,800 witnessed this milestone event -- and were appropriately somber when this rough-and-tumble contest came to a close.

The Saints (21-4, 6-3) were certainly aware of what they had accomplished. They gathered at midcourt for a raucous celebration after the final buzzer.

"At one point in the year, we were No. 2 in the country," Carroll coach Shawn Nelson pointed out. "So it's not like it was a bad basketball team that came in here and beat them."

Before Fuzesy's dagger, it seemed that the Warriors had pulled off a clever escape. They were down by five points with three minutes left, but hashed out a sudden 7-0 charge to surge ahead.

Morrison, a 6-foot junior transfer, carried the burden. Her three consecutive scores -- a 15-foot jumper, a driving scoop shot and a layup off a lob pass -- put L-C up 57-55.

The Saints then fumbled possession, and the Warriors' Katie Hart went to the foul line with 20.2 seconds left.

But this was a game completely devoid of clutch free-throw shooting. Carroll missed five from the line during Morrison's burst, and the Warriors hit just 4 of 16 in the second half.

So of course, Hart missed both.

The Saints grabbed the rebound and, without calling a timeout, went on the attack. Thanks to a double screen on the perimeter, Fuzesy popped open on the left side and grabbed a pass that was lobbed in from the right. The heave from the second-most accurate 3-point shooter in the NAIA grazed the back of the rim, then ripped through the net.

"It was a great look," Nelson said. "It was the best look she had all night."

In fact, it was the only shot Fuzesy made. She finished 1-for-7 from the floor and scored five points.

The Warriors (21-3, 8-1) called timeout, but had to inbound that ball under Carroll's basket. Hart raced to the other end, and chucked a left-handed scoop shot that clanged off the backboard and rim at the buzzer.

L-C's offensive production came almost exclusively from Morrison and Ashley Baker. The high-scoring posts combined for 43 points.

This pound-it-inside tactic helped the Warriors get to the line, but they converted few of those tries in the second half.

"You go right to that -- 4 of 16 in the second half -- hey, that's the game," L-C coach Brian Orr said. "We had our chances. If we make free throws, who knows what the score is? It should have been in our favor.

"Maybe bad strategy trying to get to the foul line," he added, "because it was like a turnovers."

The Warriors play just once this week -- at home Saturday against Westminster -- and Orr promised his players would spend the down time practicing their free throws.

"We've got to learn from it," Orr said, "and maybe it'll slap us in the face a little bit and wake us up."

NOTES -- Technically, the Warriors' home winning streak had already been snapped before Saturday. Earlier in the week, the men's team found out it would have to forfeit its first five victories for using an ineligible player. One of those games was a 22-point win at the Activity Center over Cascade College on Nov. 4. But that bit of trivia will likely be forgotten.

CARROLL COLLEGE (21-4, 6-3)

Emili Woody 2-4 0-0 5, Amy Brooks 2-4 1-2 5, Carly Syverson 2-7 0-1 6, Jolene Fuzesy 1-7 2-2 5, Andrea Hall 4-10 3-6 14, Laci High 0-1 0-0 0, Danielle Maloney 4-8 3-8 12, Sophi Forney 2-5 0-0 4, Katie Rodgers 3-5 1-3 7. Totals 20-51 10-22 58.

LEWIS-CLARK STATE (21-3, 8-1)

Katie Hart 1-7 0-2 2, Jade Fulbright 2-7 2-5 6, Cami Kalbfleisch 0-4 0-1 0, Ashley Baker 10-23 3-8 23, Aundrea Morrison 9-14 2-3 20, Terri Wittmer 0-0 0-0 0, Kim Preston 0-0 0-0 0, Katya Yancheva 0-4 4-4 4, Janeen Nelson 0-1 0-1 0, Vanessa West 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 23-65 11-24 57.

Halftime score -- LCSC 29, Carroll 25. Three-point goals -- Carroll 8-22 (Woody 1-1, Syverson 2-3, Fuzesy 1-6, Hall 3-8, Maloney 1-3 , Forney 0-1); LCSC 0-6 (Fulbright 0-1, Kalbfleisch 0-2, Yancheva 0-2, Nelson 0-1). Rebounds -- Carroll 48 (Hall 9, Forney 9); LCSC (Baker 11). Assists -- Carroll 11 (Syverson 4); LCSC 8 (Kalbfleisch 4). Total fouls -- Carroll 24, LCSC 22. Technical fouls -- none. Fouled out -- Woody, Hall.