MOSCOW, Idaho  – Despite giving up a 16-2 run midway through the first half, the Lewis-Clark State College men's basketball team hung tough with the University of Idaho before falling 80-66 in an exhibition contest on Friday night.
 
The Warriors jumped out to a 9-2 lead two minutes into the game over the NCAA Division I Vandals as David Shedrick, Trea Thomas and Doug McDaniel all hit 3-pointers.
 
Idaho, however, responded with a 16-2 run over the next seven minutes to grab an 18-11 advantage and never lost the lead again, although LCSC did make things interesting throughout the contest.
 
The Warriors cut the margin to three in the first half before Idaho took a 43-29 lead at halftime. In the second half, the Warriors cut the margin to 60-54, and later trailed only 72-64 with less than three minutes remaining.
 
Being able to hang close was a big improvement from a week ago when LCSC lost an exhibition game at Boise State 85-53. In that contest, LCSC also was in a tight game early, but BSU gradually pulled away and kept adding to its lead throughout.
 
"I thought our guys competed tonight and even when we got down we kept battling," LCSC coach Brandon Rinta said. "We cut it to six with about seven minutes to go, but we just couldn't quite get over the hump there."
 
The Warriors hit 15 3-pointers in the game and also forced 15 Vandal turnovers. However, it was the 16 turnovers LCSC committed that didn't sit well with Rinta.
 
"The biggest thing we need to do is to take better care of the basketball," he said. "That is uncharacteristic of this team. We haven't turned the ball over like that all year, not in practice or in games. I don't expect us to do that moving forward.
 
"Our ball movement was really good when we weren't turning it over. We were able to find our shooters."
 
McDaniel was the key figure in the Warriors' offense. He finished with 27 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field, which included a 7-of-15 effort from the 3-point line. He also was 4-for-4 at the foul line, grabbed a team-high five rebounds and added two assists.
 
"Obviously it helps when Doug gets it going like that," Rinta said. "And we were able to feed off of that."
 
Derrick White added eight points for LCSC, while Thomas had seven.
 
LCSC finished the game 22-of-59 from the field for 37.3 percent, which included a 15-of-40 effort from the 3-point line, 37.5 percent. Idaho was 50 percent from the field, 27-of-54, and 42.1 percent from the 3-point line, 8-of-19.
 
Idaho used its large size advantage for a 40-25 rebounding edge.
 
LCSC's next regular-season game comes next Friday, Nov. 11, at home against the College of Idaho in the Clearwater River Casino & Lodge Classic at the Activity Center.