LEWISTON, Idaho – Some numbers tell one story, while other numbers tell a completely different story.
 
For the Lewis-Clark State College women's basketball team, Saturday night had a lot of conflicting numbers, but the one that mattered was a 57-42 Frontier Conference win over Carroll.
 
The win keeps the Warriors undefeated at 19-0, the best start in program history. At 7-0 in conference play, LCSC also has a 2.5-game lead over second-place Montana State-Northern. Carroll, meanwhile, falls to 12-4 and 2-4.
 
The confusing numbers on Saturday included LCSC had its lowest scoring game of the season – almost 30 points below its season average - and the NAIA's second-ranked team in 3-point shooting didn't make a 3-pointer, let alone only attempted six. Finally, LCSC's guard play, which normally provides the scoring punch, had just 13 points.
 
But for the nation's No. 2-ranked team, the numbers produced by the Warriors' three post players more than made up the difference. Junior Brittany Tackett and sophomores Hailey Turner and Jossilyn Blackman combined for 44 points and provided the punch the Warriors needed.
 
"One of the things we talked about early is that we wanted to turn this into a track meet and we weren't able to do that," LCSC coach Brian Orr said.  "You have to give Carroll all the credit in the world. When you are averaging 85 a game and you only get 57, I think they imposed their will on us.  More than we were able to do our thing."
 
Tackett, however, was able to impose her will on the Saints. She finished with a game-high 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting and also had five rebounds and three assists. All of this despite playing just a little more than half of the game because of foul trouble.
 
Tackett scored 12 points in the final quarter when LCSC pulled away and broke open the fairly tight contest. LCSC led 29-20 at halftime, but Carroll cut the margin to 39-33 entering the final 10 minutes. That's when the Warriors outscored the Saints 18-9 with most of the production coming from Tackett.
 
Tackett was 10-of-11 from the field in Friday's win over Montana Tech, leaving her 19-of-21 for the weekend.
 
"Brittany had a really efficient game," Orr said. "She is just a hard matchup for everybody. If she didn't get into foul trouble she would have had 30 tonight."
 
Both Turner and Blackman finished with 12 points apiece. Turner also had seven rebounds.
 
"Most of our scoring was from our post players," Orr said after his club gave up a couple of inches to Carroll's front line. "We had about a 20 point differential in points in the paint (40-22) and you just would have never expected that. Give our post players credit."
 
For the game, LCSC was 25-of-53 from the field for 47.2 percent, but hit 12-of-20 in the second half for 60 percent. LCSC also was a perfect 7-of-7 at the foul line.
 
"I know this, the fact we were able to win this game and not play our game, I think that speaks volumes," Orr said. "I was extremely happy with our defensive effort. I'm really proud of the way we defended."
 
After Saturday's win, the closest conference team to LCSC has two league losses. Still, Orr says there is a long way to go. LCSC had 11 league games remaining, of which six will be on the road.
 
"We know we have an advantage right now, but we can't look at it like that," Orr said. "We have to continue to grow and develop as a team. Truly, I don't think we've come anywhere near our peak. This is such a great group."
 
The Warriors return to action next week on the road for a pair of conference games. On Friday, LCSC will be in Great Falls, Mont., to take on Great Falls. On Saturday, LCSC will be in Havre, Mont., to face second-place Montana State-Northern.