BILLINGS, Mont. – The Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team lost its seeding coin flip with Montana State University-Northern, which means the Warriors will be the No. 3 seed for the conference tournament, which opens Wednesday.
The Warriors, 20-7 on the season, finished tied for second in the conference standings with MSU-Northern at 10-4. The two teams split their head-to-head meeting, which is the first tiebreaker, and the teams also had their remaining three losses all come against the same opponents, which is the second tiebreaker. That forced a coin flip to decide the second seed.
Although both teams get home games on Wednesday, if both win, they would meet on Friday at the higher seed’s home court, which would be in Havre, Mont.
LCSC opens play on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the LCSC Activity Center against Montana Tech, a team it swept during the regular season. Tech finished in a three-way tie for fifth place at 4-10 in the conference and also was 7-17 overall. LCSC defeated Tech 63-60 at home on Jan. 17 and then 73-47 on the road on Feb. 13.
With a win, LCSC would then play on Friday against the winner of the Montana Western vs. MSU-Northern game. If Northern wins, the game will be at 6 p.m. in Havre, but if Montana Western wins, it will travel to Lewiston to play LCSC at 7 p.m.
Because Wednesday’s game is a playoff game, no passes of any kind will be accepted at the gate. Ticket prices, set by the conference, are $7 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students.
The rest of Wednesday’s pairings have top seed Westminster at home against Great Falls, while No. 5 Carroll will travel to No. 4 Rocky Mountain. The winner of those two games will meet on Friday at the home of the highest seed.
The championship game will be held March 9 at the highest remaining seed.
On the men’s side, the tournament follows the same format as the women, but starts on Thursday. LCSC, at 11-13 and 5-9 is the No. 6 seed, and will travel to No. 3 seed MSU-Northern, which is 21-8 and 10-4 for a 6 p.m. (Pacific time) contest. MSU-Northern tied Rocky Mountain for second place in the standings, but lost out on the No. 2 seed because of tiebreakers.
The Warriors did no fare well against Northern this season, falling 67-56 on the road on Jan. 10 and then 71-59 at home on Feb. 5.
The rest of Thursday’s pairings, all starting at 6 p.m., have top seed Westminster at home against No. 8 seed Montana Tech; No. 2 Rocky Mountain entertaining No. 7 Great Falls, and No. 4 Carroll at home to No. 5 Montana Western. The second round will be held on Saturday and the championship game is March 10.
The LCSC-Northern winner will face the Rocky Mountain-Great Falls winner on Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
Here are the final Frontier Conference standings.
WOMEN – Westminster 14-0, 24-5. Lewis-Clark State 10-4, 20-7; Montana State-Northern 10-4, 18-11; Rocky Mountain 9-5, 15-14; Carroll 4-10, 15-15; Montana Tech 4-10, 7-17, Montana Western 4-10, 8-20; Great Falls 1-13, 7-22.
MEN – Westminster 13-3, 25-4; Rocky Mountain 10-4, 21-8; Montana State-Northern 10-4, 21-8; Carroll 9-5, 19-6; Montana Western 8-6, 15-13; Lewis-Clark State 5-9, 11-13; Great Falls 2-12, 8-22; Montana Tech 1-13, 8-20.
