LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball seems to have found its kryptonite this season, and it comes in the form of the Montana Tech Orediggers. In front of a season-high crowd of 1,715 at the Activity Center on Thursday night, the Orediggers eked out a 70-66 win over the Warriors to end LCSC’s 16-game winning streak at home and to bump them out of first in the Frontier Conference standings.
The Warriors, who are now 22-4 overall 8-2 in conference play, would be in first-place and have a perfect conference mark if not for their two losses to Tech.
Although they never seemed to gain much of a scoring rhythm, the Warriors, ranked No. 11 in the NAIA, fought through Tech’s solid defense and held a lead of 31-28 at the half and even led by as much as eight in the second half.
Montana Tech, led by Taesha Higbee who had a double-double of 20 points and 13 rebounds, kept the score close and eventually pulled away by getting to the foul line and making free throws. Tech outscored the Warriors 26-17 at the line—a margin that ended up meaning the difference in the game.
The two teams knotted the score on 11 occasions in the second half, with the final tie coming at 64-64 with 1:15 left on the clock. On the ensuing possession Higbee gathered an offensive rebound and put it back in to take the lead. The Warriors then were charged with an offensive foul, and Tech, shooting double-bonus shots, capitalized to increase its lead to 67-64.
With less than a minute remaining the Warriors missed back-to-back shot attempts, but were eventually fouled. Ashley Honeycutt made both of her free throws to cut the lead to 67-66 with 23 seconds left. Jessie DePell answered for the Orediggers by driving and drawing a foul on the Warriors. DePell hit 1-of-2 shots at the line to bring the lead back to two. On the ensuing possession a shot by LC’s Lauren Daling rimmed out and the Orediggers regained possession. The Warriors then fouled again to stop the clock at one second, but DePell swooshed both free throws to clinch the game.
Tech, which defeated LCSC 69-61 in Butte earlier this season, improves to 15-7 overall and 5-5 in the conference. Westminster College, which defeated Montana Western 89-64 on Thursday, now holds sole possession of first-place.
Kirsi Voshell led the Warriors with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Voshell also had two blocks which brings her just one block shy of LCSC’s season block record of 53 set by Katarina Gabianova during the 2001-02 campaign.
One record that did fall on Thursday night was the Warriors’ season block record as a team. The Warriors came up with 143 swats in 2008-09, but have 147 blocks this season after blocking six shots against the Orediggers.
Jasmine Stohr scored 16 points and had four rebounds, four assists, and three blocks. Alyssa Fierro led LC with 13 rebounds to go with her eight points.
Tech’s Jennessa Todd was the third player on the night to have a double-double as she dropped in 14 points and had 10 rebounds. DePell finished with 16 points and was 10-of-12 at the line—7-of-8 in the second half.
The Warriors shot 34.8 percent from the field in the game, compared to a 33.9 mark for Montana Tech. The Orediggers had a 47-44 rebounding advantage, and both teams committed 13 turnovers.
Lewis-Clark State will return to the Activity Center on Saturday night to face Montana Western at 6 p.m. Saturday’s contest is Senior Night for the Warriors and will feature a pre-game ceremony honoring DePeel, the lone senior on the squad. Fans who buy one admission ticket on Saturday will get another one free.
