SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Lewis-Clark State College senior forward Jasmine Stohr hit a milestone Saturday night. Unfortunately for her, it was not a night to remember for the Warriors.
Stohr became the fourth Warrior in program history to score 2,000 points in a career, but LCSC ran into all sorts of trouble in the second half and fell to Westminster 78-56 in a key Frontier Conference women’s basketball contest.
With the win, Westminster, ranked No. 18 in the NAIA, clinched no worse than a tie for the conference title. The Griffins are 11-1 in league play and 18-7 overall. The team also has won 13 of its last 14 games with its lone blemish being a 57-50 loss to LCSC in Lewiston last month.
The Warriors, ranked No. 8, can still tie Westminster for the league title, but at 9-3 in league, LCSC will need to sweep Great Falls and Montana State-Northern next week and have the Griffins lose to both. A win by Westminster in either game will give it the regular season title and the top seed in the conference tournament. Because the highest seed will always play at home in the conference tournament, the regular season champion is guaranteed to play at home as long as it is alive in the tournament.
LCSC falls to 23-4 overall.
Stohr, a 6-foot All-American forward from Yakima, scored a team-high 13 points and now has 2,004 in her career at LCSC. She joins Rosie Albert (2,276), Julie Stringer (2,229) and Ashley Baker (2,075) as the only Warriors with 2,000 points in their career. Depending on LCSC’s postseason success, Stohr could have a shot to overtake Baker for the No. 3 spot.
The night as a whole, however, was a disappointing one for the Warriors, especially in the second half when Westminster pulled away.
In the first half, the Warriors led most of the way before Westminster grabbed its first lead at 22-21. The two remained close, but Westminster was able to take a 29-27 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the combination of turnovers, Westminster’s 3-point shooting, and the Warriors’ cold shooting helped the Griffins outscore LCSC 49-29 in the second half.
“We got off to a great start and played OK in the first half,” LCSC coach Brian Orr said. “The second half was completely different. You have to give Westminster credit. They came out and played very well. We did not.”
LCSC committed 18 turnovers in the contest, including 11 in the second half. That helped Westminster score 19 points off of LCSC turnovers and run off 11 straight points early in the second half to break a 31-31 tie.
Westminster, which was only 3-of-12 from the 3-point line in the first half, went 7-of-14 from the arc in the second half. The Warriors only hit three field goals in the first 15:50 of the second half as the Griffins pulled away.
“In the first half, we did a pretty good job of guarding the arc, but in the second half they had a lot of open looks and they did a nice job of finding the open player,” Orr said. “And their defense took us out of everything we wanted to do. They trapped the ball hard and we didn’t take care of the ball. Their defense turned us over and exploited some of our weaknesses.”
LCSC senior posts Kirsi Voshell and Alyssa Fierro both finished with eight and four points, respectively, and the combined 12 points is the second lowest total the two have had this season. It was also on the fourth time this season Voshell failed to score in double digits and the Warriors have lost three of those games.
Voshell led the Warriors in rebounding with six and also had two steals.
Overall, LCSC was outscored 18-10 in the paint.
Tasha Bishop added 12 points for LCSC, while freshman Kelli Rice came off the bench to add 11. Bishop hit four 3-pointers in the contest, while Rice was 3-for-3.
“Kelli gave us a spark off the bench,” Orr said. “And Tanis (Fuller) came in and played well in the second half. I thought our bench came to life in the second half.
Dana Bates was one of four Westminster players in double figures and finished with a game-high 18 points.
For the game, LCSC finished 19-of-49 from the field for 38.1 percent, while Westminster was 25-of-54 for 46.3 percent.
The Warriors wrap up the regular season at home this week when they play host to Great Falls on Thursday and MSU-Northern on Saturday. Both games tipoff at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday’s game will be Senior Night when the Warriors will honor their four seniors – Stohr, Voshell, Fierro, and Bishop.
“The focus for us is our next practice, and then our next practice,” Orr said. “We just want to get better everyday. We can’t look ahead. We know we’re a better team than we showed tonight, but we have to keep working hard and get better.”
