DILLON, Mont. – In the end, it came down to too many second-half turnovers by the Lewis-Clark State men's basketball team and the result was a 91-85 semifinal loss at Montana-Western in Frontier Conference semifinal action Friday night.
With the loss, the 18
th-ranked Warriors are awaiting the announcement of the NAIA National Tournament field to see who they will play in the first round. For Montana-Western, there is one more stop – the Frontier Conference championship game at top-seeded Carroll College Monday night.
LC turned the ball over nine times in the second half and 15 times in the game. The Bulldogs were able to capitalize on those bobbles to the tune of 22 points off turnovers – 17 in the final 20 minutes.
"We overcame a lot tonight just to be in the position we were in down the stretch," coach
Brandon Rinta said. "Unfortunately, we turned it over too much in the second half and did not get the stops we needed in the last few minutes."
Turnovers early in the second half played a big role in Montana-Western pulling out to a 10-point, 71-61, lead midway through the second half. But, the Warriors scrapped and battled their way back. They led for brief spans – by one with 3:02 to go on
Andre McCowan's jumper and by two with a field goal by
Race Martin with 2:23 to play.
Fouls and turnovers, though, enabled Montana-Western to regain the lead – although the Bulldogs never led by more than three until the final nine seconds, on a field goal/free throw combination by Troy Scott with 2:02 to play.
Martin was the Warriors' scoring leader with 19 points and
Dana Abe finished with 16 point and seven rebounds.
Jeremy Franklin had six points, six assists and seven rebounds.
Derrick White (14 points, three rebounds) and
Trea Thomas (13 points, five rebounds and two assists) drew praise from Rinta for their play on both ends of the court.
"Trea and Derrick played really good all-around games tonight," Rinta said. "They had tough defensive assignments and they made their guys work for everything they got."
