HELENA, Mont. – Turnovers were the downfall of the Lewis-Clark State College men's basketball team Thursday night in a 69-64 loss at Carroll College in Frontier Conference action.
 
Turnovers early put the Warriors in a hole and turnovers late disrupted a promising comeback.
 
"Turnovers in the first half allowed them to build their lead," said coach Brandon Rinta in reference to Carroll's 39-28 halftime edge – in part, courtesy of five Warrior turnovers.
 
The Saints, now second in the conference while the Warriors are third, eventually led by 19 – 51-32, just over three minutes into the second half. LC mounted a comeback that would bring the Warriors to within 59-54 on Race Martin's field goal with 7:08 to play.
 
LC would close to within five three more times in the final minutes but that was a close as they would come.
 
"We missed some rotations at the start of the second half that allowed them to stretch it out," Rinta said. "Another stretch of turnovers late hurt our momentum."
 
Still, Rinta found positives as the Warriors head into their regular-season finale Saturday at Rocky Mountain and on to the Frontier Conference playoffs Tuesday.
 
"Once again," he said, "this team never quit. We had some good stretches as a team defending and creating quality shots. On the road against a quality team like Carroll those stretches need to be longer."
 
Martin led the Warriors with 17 points. Dana Abe had 12 points and Andre McCowan had 11. Jeremy Franklin was the rebound leader with seven.