LEWISTON, Idaho – Thanks to an MVP kind of effort from Jasmine Stohr, the Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team roared to a 74-60 win over California Baptist University at the Greg Jose/Twin Rivers Physical Therapy Classic on Saturday night.
Stohr, who was named the Classic’s MVP, had a season-high and tied her career-high with 30 points—15 of which came in the second half and just in time to ward off a talented Cal Baptist squad.
“They’re a good team, and we have to tip our hats to them,” said LCSC head coach Brian Orr about CBU. “Stohr really made some key shots for us.”
Beyond the offensive performance of Stohr, the Warriors were also aided by a 25-14 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 52-36 lead in rebounds overall. Alyssa Fierro led with 12 boards including eight on the offensive end, and Stohr had nine total.
The No. 11-ranked Warriors, which are now 6-0, outscored the Lancers 22-12 in the paint, and 23-11 in second chance points, and ended up narrowly outshooting them 33.3-percent to 32.8-percent.
“When you shoot 33-percent and are still able to win, a lot of credit has to go to your defense,” Orr said.
A big challenge for Warrior defenders was keeping the fleet-footed Lancers from scoring too many fast break points.
“The number one key was to sprint back and not give them any transition baskets,” said Orr. “We knew that on Friday that’s how they scored a lot of their points against Oregon Tech.”
After scoring 23 fast break points against the Owls the night before, the Lancers were held to just 13 against L-C.
The Warriors had only eight steals in the game, but a couple of them came at key moments down the stretch including one from Kenna Reiter around the four-minute mark which resulted in a layup from Stohr and the lead being bumped from five to seven.
This play was followed by four more unanswered points which helped the Warriors hold a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
Lauren Daling was the only Warrior besides Stohr to score in double-digits as she had 15 points on a 4-of-9 night from the 3-point line to go with four rebounds. Kenna Reiter had seven points and five assists, and Kirsi Voshell, who was named to the all-tournament team, had six points and five rebounds.
Voshell was joined on the all-tournament team by V.V. Vasciunaite and Renetha Burton of Cal Baptist, Jessilyn Conicelli of Biola, and Morgan Hofman of Oregon Tech.
Vasciunaite, who scored 22 points against Oregon Tech on Friday, was again the driving force behind the Lancer offense as she scored 26 points and had five assists and four steals against LCSC.
Vasciunaite was 4-of-9 from behind the 3-point line to help CBU go 7-of-19 from outside the arc overall. Brenna Hahn had 17 points including a 2-of-6 day from the outside.
The Lancers, which are now at 5-2, were helped inside from Burton who finished with four points and 10 rebounds.
At the foul line, the Warriors, led by a 9-for-9 night from Stohr, went 24-of-31, while Cal Baptist was 15-for-18.
“They have some really talented players,” Orr said about Cal Baptist. “These are the kinds of games that prepare you for the national tournament.”
While LCSC’s game against CBU may help in preparation for nationals, it also sheds a little bit of light on how the Warriors will fare during conference play. Cal Baptist faced three of LCSC’s Frontier Conference opponents earlier this month. The Lancers fell to Westminster 65-54, defeated Montana Western 111-73, and defeated Carroll 88-72.
The Warriors next game will be Dec. 3 when they face Menlo College in Atherton, Calif.
