LEWISTON, Idaho – Kiara Burlage notched her fifth double-double of the season and tied a career-high in points when the No. 25 Lewis-Clark State Women's Basketball team upset No. 22 Montana Western on Thursday in the Activity Center. The Warriors' team-leader in scoring and rebounding collected 20 points and 11 boards in the 61-40 victory.
After the Bulldogs scored the opening bucket, Burlage answered with an assist from Abbie Johnson and a 3-pointer by Jamie Nielson to take a 5-2 lead. UMW took an 8-7 lead on free throws, but a 3 from Peyton Souvenir put LC State back in front at 4:12. Two free throws by Burlage and a bucket by Hannah Burland had the Warriors up 14-10 after the first 10 minutes.
The Warriors stretched the lead to nine at 21-12 with a 3 by Rachel Schroeder and buckets by Burland and Nielson in the second frame. The Bulldogs kept it close, jumping back in front 24-23 in the final three minutes of the half. Johnson got the ball to Abby Farmer as the clock ran down, and Farmer nailed a 3 to send LC State into halftime with a 26-24 advantage.
LC State kicked the offense into high gear in the second half and outscored UMW 35-16 between the final two quarters. A triple by Nielson pushed the lead to 12 points (38-26) at the 5:58 mark in the third quarter, and free throws by Burlage kept the lead over 10 (44-33) heading into the final frame.
Three-straight Warrior points by Sara Muhelhausen gave LC State a 19-point lead in the final two minutes, and Farmer closed it out with a bucket at the buzzer to send the Warriors out with a 61-40 victory.
"I think we shared the ball a lot better in the second half," Nielson said. "That was a huge difference for us. We let ourselves down (on the road) so we had a lot of motivation to get these three and get the fourth one on Saturday."
Burlage tied a career-high with her game-leading 20 points to go with 11 rebounds. Nielson added 12 points with a pair of 3s. As a team, LC State shot 42.9 percent from the field and 92.3 percent from the line.
The Warriors held UMW to just a 21.7 field goal percentage, and 10.5 percent from 3.
Savanna Bignell led UMW with 12 points and seven boards, while Brynley Fitzgerald added 10 points.
The home stand wraps up on Saturday when the Warriors host No. 20 Rocky Mountain at 2 p.m.
