CALDWELL, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College's men's basketball team was derailed in its first road trip of the season with a 70-62 loss at College of Idaho Friday night in the Domino's Classic.
"C of I is a good team and they played well tonight," LCSC coach
Brandon Rinta said. "We just did not play well enough as a team to be able to win a road game."
The Warriors (6-1) had a three-point lead in the first half that gave way to an eight-point, 34-26, College of Idaho lead at the half. The host Coyotes went up by as many as 11 early in the second half before the Warriors battled back to within one, 41-40, on a layup by
Derrick White with 12:36 left in the game.
College of Idaho slowly built its lead again – to as many as nine, before LCSC started another dogged comeback. The Warriors closed to within five, 64-59, on two free throws by White with 1:23 to go. The Coyotes went back up by six on a free throw by Talon Pickney with 1:05 to play but LCSC lost an opportunity to chisel the lead to three when
Trea Thomas missed two free throws with :55 remaining.
"We were within arm's length coming down the stretch but came up a few plays short of giving ourselves a chance to win," Rinta said.
Race Martin was steady throughout the night with 14 points – off six-of-nine shooting, and five rebounds. Damek Mitchell added 10 points and had four rebounds. Collectively, the Warriors shot 40 percent from the field to 41.9 for C of I. The biggest disparity was on the boards where the Coyotes collected 43 to 31 for LCSC. In his first collegiate action, Lewiston' Trystan Bradley had nine points (two-of-three from the field and five-of-six from the line), while in his first game as a Warrior, Andre McCowan also had nine points.
"There were some positives. I thought our guys competed in a tough environment," Rinta said. "We had some guys play well. It was good to be able to get Andre and Trystan back."
The Warriors wrap up action in the tournament against Multnomah at 4 p.m. PT Saturday.
"We need to turn around tomorrow and be better defensively and rebounding-wise," Rinta said.
