COLLEGE PLACE, Washington – The winning ways continued for the No. 14 Lewis-Clark State Men's Basketball team on Wednesday night when the Warriors upended Walla Walla 93-66. It was all LC State from the start as the Warriors collected their ninth-straight win of the season. Damek Mitchell led LC with 19 points in a contest where every Warrior scored. He also had eight of the team's 20 assists.
"It was a good, scrappy win for our guys on the road," coach Austin Johnson said. "Aside from how we ended the first half I was pleased with our team defense."
Hodges Bailey opened a 12-point run with a 3-pointer, and Mitchell ended it with a 3 of his own at 15:45. Travis Yenor used a triple to spark a run of nine points that saw LC State in front 21-2 at the 13:06 mark.
Both the offense and defense of LC State kicked into high gear as Trystan Bradley nailed another 3-pointer for the Warriors at 10:07, bringing the advantage to 29-6. Walla Walla attempted to get back in the game, but LC State led 50-36 at the half.
Mitchell put the first points of the second half on the board with a layoup 30 seconds in and sparked a 13-point rally to push the Warrior lead out to 63-36 by 15:56. The Warriors grabbed their largest lead of the contest in the final five minutes when a 3 from Bradley opened things up to 86-54 for a 32-point margin. LC State went on to win 93-66.
"We defended very well the second half and our unselfish offense helped us build the lead," Johnson explained. "We'll take some time off and prepare for a very tough conference-opening road trip."
Mitchell led the Warriors with 19 points, including a team-high three 3-pointers, and eight assists. Bradley added 17 points and Josiah Westbrook chipped in 14. Mitchell, Bradley and Yenor all grabbed five boards and Bradley had three blocks.
As a team the Warriors shot 55 percent from the field (29-for-53) and 46 percent from 3-point range (12-for-26). They went 23-for-29 (79 percent) from the charity stripe and dished out 20 assists. This is the fifth game this season in which every Warrior has scored.
LC State opens its final Frontier Conference season on Dec. 6 at Carroll College.
