LEWISTON, Idaho – After a back-and-forth first half against No. 20 Rocky Mountain College (13-6, 4-4), the No. 25 Lewis-Clark State Women's Basketball team (13-5, 5-3) took control of the second half to upset the Battlin' Bears 82-54. The victory is the fourth straight for the LC State women, and the second consecutive over a higher-ranked opponent. Kiara Buralge notched her sixth double-double with 19 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
"We just took more of our shots in the second half," Burlage said. "We didn't really make any 3s in the first half, just one, so it was about taking more of our rhythm shots. We know we have to believe that we are the better team, and just play more of our game to protect the home court."
The score was close throughout the first half. The lead changed hands multiple times as the two top-25 teams battled for control.
Peyton Souvenir earned the first points for the Warriors with a basket to even the score 2-2. LC State trailed by one for the majority of the first quarter, until Abby Farmer was good on two foul shots to put the Warriors in front 12-11 at the end of the frame.
Free throws by Burlage stretched the lead to three in the first minute, but the Battlin' Bears rallied to take regain the lead and stretch their advantage to eight points (24-16) by 5:16. Abbie Johnson sparked a six-point rally at 2:54, and with baskets from Souvenir and Jansen Edmiston, LC State tied things up 28-28.
Trailing by three at 31-28 with one second left, Souvenir launched a shot from deep to tie the game at the buzzer.
At the end of the first half, Souvenir led the Warriors with nine points. Johnson and Burlage collected eight.
LC State took control in the second half and ran away for its second-straight upset on the weekend. The Warriors outscored the Bears 51-23 in the second half.
Johnson wasted no time getting the Warriors on the board, draining two-straight 3-pointers to start a 10-point rally. The Warriors continued to grow the lead with a 3-pointer from Burlage at 4:14 to make it 48-36, and a 3 from Hannah Burland at 1:16 made it 56-38.
The Warriors finished the game off with four-straight triples, with one from Burland, a pair from Jamie Nielson and one from Madeline Weaver.
Burlage led the game with 19 points and 14 boards in the landslide victory. Johnson added 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Souvenir dished out six assists.
The Warriors shot 51.6 percent from the field (32-for-62), 37.9 percent from 3 (11-for-29) and were a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line. The 11 3-pointers ties a season-high. The Warrior defense held RMC to 36.1 percent from the floor and had nine steals.
"We were better defensively in the second half," Johnson explained. "We got stops on every part of the defensive floor, and those were big stops because we converted them on the offensive end. We kept them off the boards and kept talking and making slides that we needed to make."
Markaela Francis led the Battlin' Bears with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Kloie Thatcher and Destinee Pointer each had 12 points.
The Warriors hit the road next week to take on No. 18 MSU-Northern and Providence.
