Men's Basketball | 11.01.2019
Box Score SPOKANE, Washington – The No. 23 Lewis-Clark State Men's Basketball team traveled to Spokane on Friday night to take on the NCAA Division I powerhouse Gonzaga Bulldogs for the first time since 2012. Though the Zags were victorious by a final of 116-61, it was a tremendous learning experience for the Warriors.
"Our guys played really hard and that shows," coach Austin Johnson said. "We had 12 offensive rebounds and got the game into a half-court setting and were able to execute some stuff and get some great looks. Hodges (Bailey) and Travis (Yenor) knocked some (3-pointers) down. We had some really good moments and I'm really proud of how hard we played. If we play that hard and weather the storm against teams at our level then I like where we are going to finish."
Trystan Bradley answered the Zags' opening basket with a second-chance jumper. The Warriors took a 4-2 lead on a tip-in by Travis Yenor in the first minute. A minute later, Bradley put away a layup to keep the Warriors in front by a two-point margin. Damek Mitchell got in on the scoring with a 3 from the corner to tie the game 11-11. Gonzaga took off on an eight-point run to pull ahead 19-11 before Khalil Stevenson broke through for a basket at 14:19.
Bradley tipped in a ball to give LC 15 points, but the Zags continued to pull away. Conner Moffatt pulled away an offensive rebound and assisted Hodges Bailey on a 3-pointer to give the Warriors an offensive boost, but Gonzaga took a 65-29 lead into the locker room.
Stevenson drained a pair of free throws midway through the second half to keep LC's offense alive. The Gonzaga offense was persistent, though, adding 25 points to their total in the first 9 minutes of the half. Yenor hit a 3 just ahead of the 10-minute mark, and Bailey nailed a 3 at 9:38 to bring the score to 92-41. Yenor hit another triple at 9:04 and Dedrick Pakootas joined the 3-point party at 7:55.
Jaxon Hughes hit his second 3 of the game with just over a minute to play, and Moffatt hit a pair of foul shots inside the last 60 seconds. Daylon Potts dropped in a layup as the clock ran down.
The Zags took the exhibition 116-61.
Yenor led the Warriors with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and a 3-of-6 effort from long range. The junior forward also controlled the glass with a team-high seven rebounds and added one of the Warriors three blocks in the contest.
"It was super fun," Yenor said. "Not many people can say that they played against Gonzaga at Gonzaga so that's really cool. It taught us to play confident and play free."
Bailey also hit double figures, tallying 11 points behind three triples. Bradley finished with six points inside and four boards while Pakootas sank both of his attempts from beyond the arc for six points on the night.
The Warriors return home to host the Clearwater River Casino and Lodge Classic on Nov. 8 and 9. Both games will be at 7 p.m.
