SALEM, Ore. –  Led by a defense that forced 15 first-half turnovers that turned into some transition buckets, the Lewis-Clark State College men's basketball team raced past Corban University 101-79 on Sunday in the final day of the Corban Classic.

LCSC finished 2-0 in the tournament, which featured three teams playing each other over three days. LCSC also defeated Simpson College 90-65 in tourney play on Saturday, while Corban beat Simpson 70-67 on Friday.

The contest featured LCSC coach Brandon Rinta against his former assistant Austin Johnson. Johnson served as an assistant coach at LCSC for six seasons, including the last four under Rinta. He was named Corban's head coach following last season.

Sunday's contest had eight ties in the first half, but LCSC was able to take the lead for good at 32-30 at the 7:16 mark on a layup by Zavon Jackson, who had an outstanding night. That bucket started the Warriors on a 17-5 run over the next five minutes. Six of LCSC's points came off Corban turnovers.

"I thought that we played with really good energy today," Rinta said after the Warriors improved to 6-1 on the season. "We came out really aggressive and turned them over 15 times in the first half."

LCSC held a 51-40 edge at halftime with 16 points the result of Corban turnovers. LCSC also had 32 points in the paint.

The second half was more of the same. Corban did cut the lead to single digits with the first bucket of the second half, but LCSC responded with the next seven and the contest never was closer than 12 points the rest of the way.  LCSC used a 7-0 run in the middle of the half to up its lead to 84-65 and put the game out of reach.

LCSC forced 22 turnovers in the contest and converted those turnovers into 24 points.

"We did a good job making good decisions with the basketball tonight again, too," said Rinta, whose club had 19 assists to only nine turnovers. "Even though we are trying to get the game going up and down, it is going to be important for us to make good decisions on offense."

Doug McDaniel and Jackson both had outstanding nights for LCSC. McDaniel again led the team with 27 points and also had a team-high nine rebounds and four steals. He finished 9-of-17 from the field, including 4-of-7 from the 3-point line and 5-of-5 at the foul line. Jackson had 20 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and four steals. He was 9-of-12 from the field and 2-of-4 at the foul line.

"We had a bunch of guys play well tonight but Zavon and Doug were on," Rinta said. "That is the closest we have ever come to having someone have a triple double (reaching double digits in three statistical categories). Zavon's stat line was impressive."

"Doug was in a good rhythm as well offensively. What I like about how he is playing is he is rebounding at a high level too. That is going to be important for us."
Derrick White also was in double figures scoring for LCSC with 10 points, while Isaiah Omamogho added nine. Rinta commended White and Jeremy Franklin, who had six points and four rebounds, for their play off the bench.

As a team, LCSC hit 50 percent of its shots, 37-of-74, from the field, and was 11-of-31 at the 3-point line, 35.5 percent. LCSC hit 57.9 percent from the field in the first half, but cooled to 41.7 percent in the second half. However, LCSC did hit 14-of-17 free throws in the final 20 minutes.

Corban, 3-4 overall, was led by Joel Johnson's 15 points.

"Coach Johnson is doing a great job at Corban," Rinta said. "I was really impressed with his team and their fight. I am looking forward to following them as they building the Corban basketball program."

LCSC will continue play on the road this week with three games. On Wednesday, LCSC is in Olympia, Wash., to face Evergreen State College at 6 p.m. LCSC then heads to Portland where it will face Portland Bible College on Friday at 5 p.m. and then Warner Pacific on Saturday at 6 p.m.

LCSC's next home game will be the start of Frontier Conference play. LCSC will face Great Falls on Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the LCSC Activity Center.