KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The No. 7 Lewis-Clark State men's basketball team made history on Friday with its 88-86 win over the No. 23 William Penn Statesmen to clinch the program's first trip to the NAIA Quarterfinal. Dana Abe shattered the LC program record for free throws made, free throw attempts and consecutive free throws made in his career-high 32-point game.
"We had a gutsy effort from our guys against an extremely talented and tough William Penn team," coach Austin Johnson said. "Dana (Abe) played like the All-American that he is; attacking switches and mismatches, and taking it strong to the basket."
Cordel Hankerson denied the Statesmen's first attempt with a block to put the ball into the hands of the Warriors. Dana Abe found the basket at 19:19 to get the scoring started. William Penn answered with a 3 before Trystan Bradley and Damek Mitchell went back-to-back to put LC in front 6-3. Race Martin made two-straight 3-pointers to grow the advantage to 12-5 with 14 minutes to play in the half.
William Penn battled back to pull within three, eight-straight points by Josiah Westbrook gave the Warriors a 20-17 lead with nine minutes on the clock. Cory Dollarhide added to the parade of 3s with his own triple at 8:43. Derrick White found Bradley at the hoop with a pass above the basket before free throws from Abe gave LC a nine-point lead. Dollarhide added the sixth 3 of the half with 6:46 to give the Warriors a 29-17 cushion.
The Statesmen went on an eight-point run before Abe made a free throw, but WPU continued to crawl back into the game. Abe grew the lead back to five at 33-28 on a 3-pointer with 3:27 to go in the first half. Abe hit his second 3 within the next minute before Westbrook and Hankerson each added two points to put the Warriors up 40-33.
The Warriors led 40-36 at the half.
William Penn scored the first points of the second half, but Bradley answered with a pair from the free throw line two minutes in. The Statesmen tied the game 42-42 with 17:21 on the clock before a foul on Mitchell resulted in two foul shots to give LC back the lead. Westbrook and Hankerson went back-to-back to push the lead to five after five minutes.
Abe hit all six free throws on three trips to the line in the first eight minutes of the second half. Westbrook continued to drain baskets from beyond the arc with a shot at the 11:05 mark to give LC a 57-52 advantage. A reverse layup from Dollarhide helped LC maintain its edge over the Statesmen.
Abe fought through traffic to push the LC lead to three with just under eight to play before being fouled and draining both free throws to bring the score to 65-60. Abe drained his 12th-straight foul shot at the 3:19 mark in the second half to keep the Warriors in front as the two teams continued to trade baskets.
White put up a block before finding the basket with an assist from Martin to give the Warriors 80 points. With his 14th-straight free throws with 29 seconds on the clock, Abe set an LC men's basketball record for the most consecutive made foul shots. With the clock running under 20 seconds, the Warriors led 82-80.
Abe continued to produce at the line with his 18th-consecutive free throw made to keep the Warriors in front by four with 12 seconds remaining. LC hung on to earn the Second Round victory 88-86.
Abe turned in one of his best performances of the season at an opportune time, setting three LC men's basketball records along the way. His 20 free throws made, 24 free throws attempts and 18-consecutive free throws made all go down as the best by a Warrior.
The senior from Seattle set a career-high to lead the Warriors with 32 points. Westbrook dropped 15 points, including three 3-pointers, and Dollarhide added 10 points. White dished five assists, put up two blocks and had two steals.
The Warriors were 29-for-34 from the charity strip (85 percent), and shot 42 percent from the floor. 31 of LC's 88 points came off the bench. LC forced 15 turnovers while committing only seven.
"Josiah (Westbrook), Cory (Dollarhide) and Race (Martin) hit some big shots," Johnson said. "Cordel (Hankerson), Derrick (White) and Damek (Mitchell) really helped us make William Penn work for everything they got."
"Coach Leif Karlberg drew up some great stuff out of timeouts for us late and our guys did a great job executing," Johnson added. "I am proud of this group and that we get more time together."
With their historic win, the Warriors are now 29-6 on the season and have won 13-straight, the second-longest in program history. They face No. 2 LSU Alexandria tomorrow at noon in a rematch of last year's NAIA Opening Round.
