DILLON, Mont. - The No. 17 Lewis-Clark State Men's Basketball Team proved why they are one of the top teams in the NAIA with an 83-62 win over Montana-Western to improve to 2-0 in Frontier play.

"Tonight was another great team effort," Head Coach Austin Johnson said. "We had contributions from everyone. It was a real short turnaround and the travel in this league is grueling so for our guys to come out and compete for 40 minutes on the road and play together was big."

The Bulldogs wasted no time, scoring in their first possession of the game. Race Martin got the Warriors on the board with a pair of 3s to give LC a 6-4 lead within the first two minutes. The Warrior defense got to work, with Cordel Hankerson creating the opportunity for a steal by Damek Mitchell. The sophomore got the ball to Dana Abe who put it in for LC and the Warriors led 11-6 at 15:51.

A block by Trystan Bradley denied the Bulldogs and got the ball back into the hands of Hankerson and into the basket once again. A bucket by Hankerson at 14:29 sparked an eight-point run fueled by four points each from Abe and Hankerson to put LC up 19-8. After eight from the Bulldogs, the Warriors went on a scoring run of seven with points from Andre McCowan and Martin to increase their lead to 10 at 26-16 with nine to play.

The Bulldogs pulled within 10 at 29-20 with 7:45 to play, but LC took off for another six points, including four from McCowan to regain the momentum with a 35-20 advantage. Abe threw down a dunk to push the lead to 41-29 and the Warriors carried a 42-31 lead into the locker room.

Mitchell began the scoring for LC in the second half before Martin drained his fourth 3 of the game to put the Warriors up 47-33 at 18:38. Back-to-back buckets from Hankerson gave the Warriors a 51-35 advantage at 15:52, and a triple by Mitchell grew the lead to 19. Martin and Mitchell posted steals on back-to-back Bulldog possessions, both resulting in buckets by Derrick White, to put the stellar Warriors defense on display. The baskets put LC up by 20 at 58-38 with 14 to play.

Mitchell added his eighth point of the second half with a three from White as LC continued to control every aspect of the game. After a run by Montana-Western, Hankerson dropped in a bucket to give the Warriors a 71-53 lead with six minutes left to play. A free throw by Martin gave LC their largest lead of the game at 78-55 with under three on the clock. They closed out the dominant performance with an 83-62 victory.

Martin had a career-night from behind the arc, hitting 5-for-5 3-pointers for a personal-best. He is the sixth Warrior in the program's history to have a perfect 3-point percentage with at least five made. He put up 21 points total and was 7-for-9 from the field to lead the offense. He also led the defense with eight rebounds.

Abe added 14 points to the total with his sixth-straight double-digit point game, and McCowan dropped 12.

Six different Warriors logged steals, with Hankerson and Mitchell each tallying two.

"It wasn't our best game in terms of half court defense, but we were able to speed them up and get some points on turnovers which gave us some room," Johnson said. "Andre was a huge spark off the bench tonight. He gave us a lift we needed in that first half especially."

The Warriors take a break from Frontier play to host a pair of games against Yellowstone Christian College on Dec. 7 and 8.