SPOKANE, Washington – The No. 13 Lewis-Clark State Women's Basketball team closed the book on 2019 when it dropped a game against NCAA DIII Whitworth 89-83 on Thursday. The Warriors now sit at 9-3 on the season as they head into Frontier Conference play after the New Year.
Jansen Edmiston led the Warrior women with a career-high 20 points in the contest.
"This was a disappointing loss, and it's even worse when you lose the last game going into Christmas break," coach
Brian Orr said. "You have to give Whitworth a ton of credit because they were really good this afternoon. We played well offensively but our defense let us down. We just couldn't get enough stops. Hopefully we learned a valuable lesson. We will have a couple of weeks on the practice floor to work on our weaknesses."
After Whitworth opened the contest with five straight,
Peyton Souvenir and
Kiara Burlage went back-to-back to bring LC State within one at 7:37. The Pirates answered with four points before Edmiston and
Jamie Nielson each scored to cut the deficit to 9-8 at 6:13, and
Abbie Johnson put the Warriors in front 11-9 with a 3-pointer on an assist from Souvenir at 5:51. The Pirates pulled back in front 14-11, but two-straight 3-pointers by Edmiston gave the Warriors a 17-14 advantage in the final three minutes of the opening quarter. A free throw by Burlage in the final minute gave the Warriors a slight 18-16 edge after the first.
The Pirates opened the second frame with a game-tying basket out of the gate, but a steal by
Abby Farmer put the ball in the hands of Souvenir who put LC State back in front with a 3 from the corner at 8:46. Johnson added to the lead with a pair of foul shots and a 3-pointer to make it 26-22 at the 7:27 mark. Burlage completed a three-point play with a bucket and a free throw to make it six in a row for the Warriors. With less than two minutes to play in the half, Whitworth pulled within two at 37-35.
Alexis Sykora secured an offensive rebound to get the ball to Nielson who pushed the lead back out to four with a bucket in the final seven seconds. LC State carried a 39-35 lead at the half.
A steal by Souvenir led to a breakaway basket for Edmiston to open the second half of play. Whitworth scored twice to cut the LC State lead to one, but Souvenir hit a bucket at 8:51 to keep the Warriors in front. Nielson assisted Souvenir on a 3-pointer at 7:26 as the teams traded triples with LC in front 46-43. The Pirates took a 48-46 lead at 6:25 and grew their advantage to 52-46 to force an LC timeout at 5:04.
Nielson,
Hannah Burland and Johnson all scored for LC State to bring the Warriors within two with a minute left in the quarter, but Whitworth continued to answer and kept a slim lead. Edmiston was sent to the free throw line and was good on both shots to keep the deficit at two (56-54), but a basket at the buzzer had Whitworth in front 58-54 heading into the final quarter.
Edmiston brought the Warriors within five with a layup at the 7:33 mark, and Burland answered a Whitworth 3 with one of her own at 6:31 to make it 71-63. Johnson found the basket and Farmer hit a 3 to bring the Warriors within two points (79-77) with 3:37 on the clock, and Burlage completed an and-one play to make it 81-80 Whitworth 10 seconds later. Whitworth hung on to win 89-83.
Edmiston dropped a career-high 20 points to lead the Warriors in the contest. Souvenir had 17 points and Johnson added 15. Both Johnson and Burland grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
As a team, LC State shot 53 percent from the field (32-61) and 35 percent from beyond the arc (9-26). Whitworth won the battle at the boards 42-33 and the Warriors committed 17 turnovers.
With 2019 in the books, the Warriors turn their attention to Frontier Conference play when it picks back up on Jan. 9 at No. 24 Montana Western.
