BUTTE, Mont. – Senior Kim Preston scored 21 points via a career high seven 3-pointers to spearhead the Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team’s 73-47 win against Montana Tech on Friday night. Unlike their narrow 63-60 win over Tech earlier this season, the Warriors created quite a bit of breathing room as they cruised to their third straight victory.
“It was a nice win,” said LCSC assistant coach Robin Bogar. “Everybody played a role, and this is the third game in a row that we’ve held our opponent to under 50 points, so our team defense has made some strides the last couple of weeks.”
The win brings the Warriors to 7-3 in league and 17-6 overall and keeps them tied with Rocky Mountain for second in the conference standings. Montana Tech drops to 3-7 in the conference and 6-14 overall.
Not having scored in double-digits since playing MSU-Northern on Jan. 10th, Preston leaped out of her scoring slump by shooting 7-of-12 from behind the arc—to finish with more points than she has had in the five previous games combined. Preston broke her career mark of six 3-pointers that was set earlier this season against Northwest University, but fell one point short of her career scoring mark which also came in the game against Northwest.
“It was really good to see Kim make those threes tonight,” said LCSC Bogar. “She needed that, and our team needed that.”
Playing at 7 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. due to a Breast Cancer Awareness promotion that involved Montana Tech sporting pink uniforms, the Warriors started slow but gradually pulled away from Tech and held a comfortable lead for most of the second half.
LCSC outshot the Orediggers 48.3 percent (29-of-60) to 30.8 percent (16-of-52) from the field, and 36.4 percent (8-of-22) to 16.7 percent (3-of-18) from behind the arc.
The game was tied 11-11 with a little under nine minutes left in the first half before the Warriors went on a run that gave them a 26-16 lead with about five minutes left and a 32-26 lead at half time.
“It was a really good team effort,” said Bogar. “We shared the ball well, and Sadie [Short] did a great job of guarding [Jessie] DePell—especially in the second half.”
DePell, who is averaging 15.4 points per game, scored 11 points to keep the game close early on, but was held scoreless by the Warriors in the second half.
Overall the Warriors had 14 assists to Montana Tech’s six.
In the second half, freshman Alyssa Fierro scored 10 of her 12 points in the game and Montana Tech continued to make turnovers that turned into LCSC buckets.
Lewis-Clark State scored 16 points off of 21 Tech turnovers, while the Orediggers tallied only four points off of LCSC’s 15 miscues.
Nikki DePeel was the only other Warrior to score in double-digits as she notched 10 points and three assists. Kenna Reiter also had a productive night as she finished with seven points, six assists, four steals, and three rebounds. Preston and Fierro tallied the team high of six rebounds apiece.
Jenessa Todd had the second highest point total for Tech as she finished with 10 points and tied DePell with seven rebounds. Lindsie Wilson, who scored 20 points in the teams’ previous meeting, was held to six points.
The Warriors now head south to Dillon, Mont. to face Montana Western tomorrow at 5 p.m. Montana Western fell to Westminster College 69-62 on Friday.
