HAVRE, Mont. – Bus troubles, temperatures in the negative numbers, and a season-low 18 points in the first half. The deck seemed stacked against the Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team in its regular season finale against Montana State University-Northern.
However, as the saying goes, good teams find ways to win.
Turning their game up a few notches down the stretch, the Warriors found some offensive fire and outscored the Skylights by 17 in the second half to claim a 57-47 Frontier Conference victory on Saturday night.
The win leaves LCSC at 25-4 overall and 11-3 in the conference standings, one game behind champion Westminster. LCSC will be the second seed for the conference tournament when it begins on Tuesday and with these two teams playing again. MSU-Northern is the No. 7 seed at 13-17 overall and 4-10 in league.
The two teams will meet at 7 p.m. at the LCSC Activity Center. Ticket prices, which are set by the conference, are $10 for reserved, $7.50 for general admission, and $5 for students.
In other first-round contests in the conference tournament, Great Falls is at Westminster, Montana Western is at Montana Tech, and Carroll visits Rocky Mountain. If LCSC wins, it will also be at home Friday night for the semifinals.
Against MSU-Northern, the Warriors had all sorts of woes in the first half as they fell behind 25-18. LCSC shot just 28 percent from the field, including 0-of-8 from the 3-point line. Also, Jasmine Stohr and Alyssa Fierro, who combine to average 28.4 points per game, were both held scoreless in the opening 20 minutes.
LCSC trailed by as much as nine early in the second half, but finally started to get the shots to fall down the stretch. A 3-pointer by Kenna Reiter put the Warriors ahead 45-42, their first lead since early in the game. LCSC continued to roll from there and outscored the Skylights 39-22 in the second half by hitting nearly 50 percent from the field in the second half and 3-of-5 3-point shots.
Junior Kirsi Voshell had another monster night with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The 6-foot-3 post hit 7-of-10 shots from the field.
Fierro and Stohr also combined for 18 points in the second half. Fierro finished with 10 points and seven boards, while Stohr had eight points, which marked the first time this season she failed to score in double figures. However, both Fierro and Stohr ran into foul trouble early and missed most of the first half. Stohr was 2-of-5 from the field and 4-of-5 at the foul line.
Reiter finished with nine points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while Tasha Bishop had seven points.
For the game, LCSC was 19-of-50 from the field for 38 percent and 16-of-22 at the foul line for 72.7 percent. LCSC also had a 38-30 rebounding edge.
MSU-Northern finished 15-of-44 from the field for 34.1 percent, including 5-of-15 from the 3-point line, for 33 percent.
LCSC outscored MSU-Northern 13-0 off of turnovers, and 24-14 in the paint. LCSC’s bench also outscored Northern’s 12-4.
The Warriors defeated MSU-Northern 59-43 in Lewiston earlier this year to sweep the season series. The 59 and 57 point totals are the two lowest for LCSC in conference play this season.
This is the fourth time in the last five years LCSC has won at least 25 games. The Warriors have won 20 or more games for 19 straight seasons.
