Men's Basketball | 04.14.2019
COEUR D'ALENE – The Lewis-Clark State College men's basketball team was honored as the co-College Team of the Year during the 57th annual Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame's North Idaho Sports Awards Banquet, which was held Saturday night at the Coeur d'Alene Resort.
The Warriors had their most successful season in the history of the program this year when the team advanced to the Final Four of the NAIA national tournament. LCSC tied for the Frontier Conference regular-season title and then won the conference tournament to earn an automatic berth to nationals. LCSC then won its first three games at nationals to stretch its season-high win streak to 14 games before it fell in the semifinals.
LCSC finished 30-7 overall under first-year coach Austin Johnson. The Warriors led the NAIA in scoring margin and turnover margin, and ranked fourth in scoring defense.
The Warriors shared the team award with the North Idaho College softball team, which posted a 50-3 record and won both the NWAC regular-season and tournament titles.
Johnson also was nominated for the College Coach of the Year award, which went to Corey Symons, the men's basketball coach at North Idaho College. Symons led the Cardinals to the league's regular-season and tournament titles.
LCSC also had pitcher Tyler Burch nominated for the Male Athlete of the Year. Burch was nominated for his junior season in which he was named honorable mention NAIA All American. He went 10-2 with a 2.87 ERA. In 84.2 innings he struck out 79 and held opponents to a .232 batting average. He was named the NAIA West's Pitcher of the Year and was a first-team NAIA West selection. NIC men's basketball player RayQuan Evans won the Male Athlete award.
The North Idaho Sports Banquet is held annually in April and recognizes excellence in northern Idaho high school and college male and female athletes, teams, and coaches. The award time frame covers spring sports from 2018 and the fall and winter sports for the 2018-19 school year.
The Board of the Directors for the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame select the finalists and the winners in each category.
Kenzie Dean of Timberlake High School was selected as the co-winner of the Class 3A-1A Volleyball Player of the Year. Dean will play at LCSC next season.
