LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College's men's basketball team opened the 2017-18 season with a 114-47 victory over Northwest Indian College Saturday evening at the LC Activity Center.
 
It was easy for coach Brandon Rinta to find a lot of positives in a game that featured six players in double figures with Race Martin leading the way with 26. Cordel Handerson added 21 with 17 from Cory Dollarhide, 15 from Trea Thomas, 13 from Jeremy Franklin and 10 from David Shedrick.
 
The Warriors were similarly commanding on the boards with a 47-31 margin over the Eagles. Franklin was the leader with 13; Martin had 10. As Rinta expected, Thomas provided the on-court leadership he wanted to see with eight assists.
 
"We had some really good moments out there," Rinta said. "We had to knock the rust off a little bit – just the first game, being out there under the lights."
 
It wasn't long into the game that the Warriors were running like a well-oiled machine. They connected on 55.8 percent of their field goals (51.9 from 3-point range) and has a 20:7 assist to turnover ratio. That being said, Rinta said he still had a clear halftime message for his team at halftime.
 
"In the first half," Rinta said, "the ball movement wasn't quite where we wanted it to be but that picked up big time in the second half. I really liked how we moved the basketball and shared the basketball in the second half."
 
Saturday's game was the first time for Rinta, too, to see his new players in action with eight newcomers on the roster.
 
"We got a little glimpse of a few of our new guys," Rinta said.
 
He'll have another chance to see them in action Sunday when they take on NWIC again – at 2 p.m. at the Activity Center.