LEWISTON, Idaho – The Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team erased a 17-point deficit in the final six minutes against Carroll College on Thursday, but the comeback fell a couple shots short. The Saints hung on for a 61-56 win and snapped the Warriors’ two-game win streak.
“They made key shots at key times, and we didn’t,” said LCSC head coach Brian Orr.
Down 55-38 with 6:24 left in regulation, the Warriors made a flurry of buckets during their 18-6 late-game run. However, the big shots they needs in the final minute just didn’t fall.
Kelli Rice drained a 3-pointer to make it 61-56 with a little over a minute to go, but this was the team’s final make of the game.
The loss brings the Warriors, who picked up two tough league wins on the road last week, to 6-16 overall and 3-5 in the Frontier Conference. Carroll, which received votes in this week’s national poll, is 13-6 overall and second-place in the conference standings with a league mark of 7-1.
LCSC has now lost seven games this season by five or less points.
“At one point this game was over, and we didn’t hang it up,” Orr said. “We kept fighting and got ourselves back within a couple of possessions.”
LCSC’s lone senior Annie Kane led the team with 18 points, Ornela Bacchini added 15 points and four rebounds, and Tanis Fuller had 11 points and seven rebounds. Shelby Barnes added seven points and six boards, and a number of her points fueled the rally.
The Warriors finished with a 40 to 38 percent edge in shooting and a 37-32 advantage in rebounds, but Carroll enjoyed a better night from the outside. LCSC was 1-for-7 from deep, while Carroll, which ranks third in the nation in 3-point percentage, shot 7-for-22.
Megan Patterson, who ranks No. 9 in the nation with a 42.6 percent clip from behind the arc this season, was 5-of-10 from the outside and led the Saints with 17 points and five steals. Torrie Cahill added 14 points and nine rebounds.
Lewis-Clark State was able to hold Bailey Snelling, who ranks No. 4 with a 44.7 mark from the outside, to only six points on a 1-for-5 night from the outside.
“You’ve got a team that has two of the best 3-point shooters in the country,” said Orr. “I thought our zone defense was really effective last week, and we’re going to stick with it.”
Steady defense held Carroll’s lead to 26-25 at halftime and complemented the Warriors’ late burst of offense.
“We need that type of push all game long,” Orr said about his team’s scoring run in the second half. “We just didn’t have that energy tonight until it was too late. But you have to credit Carroll. Obviously they’re a veteran team.”
On Saturday, LCSC will be pitted against a familiar foe in Montana State University-Northern. The Warriors knocked off the Skylights 78-76 last week in double-overtime. The tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
“We have to be ready to play. We have to be ready for a fight. We know they have to be feeling bad about that double-overtime loss on their home floor.”
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