LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College's men's basketball team came up with the key defensive plays it needed Saturday afternoon to subdue Rocky Mountain College 84-72 and snap a three-game Frontier Conference skid.
 
"I was happy," coach Austin Johnson said, "We defended the 3 for the most part there. We really made them work. If you take away the easy stuff they got in transition, that's (Rocky's shooting percentage) a lot lower so we're really pleased with that."
 
It wasn't until the final minutes that the Warriors were able to breathe easy. After seeing a 12-point halftime lead dissolve, LC gathered itself and rebuilt a commanding 77-60 lead with 2:44 to play. But in a 24-second span, Rocky scored six points to head into the final 2:08 trailing by just 10, 77-67.
 
Johnson called timeout to settle the Warriors. The break worked to help them regain their composure and control the final two minutes of play. Trystan Bradley was the first to score again for LC with a free throw for a 78-67 lead. Derrick White was fouled on a drive to the basket to increase LC's edge to 79-67 with a free throw with 1:06 to go.
 
The Battlin' Bears countered with a field goal and free throw by Craig Wilmore with 53 seconds to play before the Warriors put the game out of reach with a free throw from Damek Mitchell and two each from Cory Dollarhide and Cordel Hankerson.
 
It was that kind of sharing of responsibility that typified the game. Dollarhide, who hit four 3-point goals, was the Warriors' leading scorer with 14. Hankerson added 13, and White and Andre McCowan had 10 each.
 
"Everybody that played stepped up and made some winning plays in one way or another," Johnson said. "It was a complete team effort on the glass. A lot of that came from our guards, which was encouraging."
 
LC's rebounding leaders were Mitchell, White, McCowan and David Shedrick with four each as the Warriors won the rebounding battle 33-27. Mitchell also had five assists.
 
Rocky's Brandon The Boy led all scorers with 19 pints. Wilmore finished with 17.
 
The Warriors trailed in the early going before Bradley worked his way into the paint to give them the lead for good with 10:22 to go in the first half. LC built leads of as many as 12 points, 27-15, on a 3-pointer from Race Martin with 5:27 to go in the opening 20 minutes.
 
But, the Battlin' Bears did just that and rallied to within two, 27-25, on a pair of free throws by Danny Betcher with 2:59 before the intermission. Over the final minutes, though, six Warriors scored to fuel a 13-3 run to end the half with a 40-28 LC advantage.
 
Rocky Mountain surged again to start the second half and cut the Warrior lead to 44-42 on Jared Samuelson's inside jumper with 15:13 to play. LC, again, roared back to build a 17-point lead before Rocky's back-to-back-to-back field goals put the pressure on in the final two minutes.
 
The Warriors are home Thursday night at 7:30 against Providence.