Lewiston, Idaho – Collegiate basketball returned to the LC Valley on Friday night when the No. 5 Lewis-Clark State Men's Basketball team took on the visiting Yellowstone Christian Centurions. The Warriors showed their depth with a strong senior class, backed by a group of talented young newcomers. LC State was led by Travis Yenor's 18 points in the 82-54 victory to open the season.
"Things haven't been normal the last 12 months so to have 40 minutes of some kind of normalcy for our players and see them run around and smile and root for each other was really special," Head Coach Austin Johnson said. "It looked like our first game. We were rusty and anxious and tried to make some stuff happen that wasn't always there, but regardless of what would have happened win-loss wise, tonight was a win because we got to come out and play."
Hodges Bailey got the Warriors started in true LC State fashion when he drained a 3-pointer 20 seconds in. Yellowstone jumped ahead 5-3, but back-to-back 3s by Yenor and Trystan Bradley put the Warriors back in the driver's seat for the remainder of the game.
Three triples from Yenor and freshman Silas Bennion stretched the advantage to 20-12 at 11:42, then a seven-point run with buckets by Brennen Newsome, Bennion and Jake Albright widened the gap to 29-15. Damek Mitchell and Bailey went back-to-back with 3s to give the Warriors an 11-point lead of 38-27 with 1:35 in the half and LC State took a 38-29 advantage into the locker room.
The Warriors opened the second frame with eight straight, aided by five points from Bradley and a three-point ply from Khalil Stevenson, to take a commanding 46-29 lead three minutes in. Four free throws by Mitchell and a basket by Bailey grew the lead to 21 at 52-31, and a pair of free throws by Brock Henry kept LC State in front by 20 at 12:52.
A pair of 3-pointers by Yenor kicked the advantage to 26 points, 74-48, at the 5:28 mark. A bucket by Oreon Courtney and a 3 by Bennion capped the scoring and gave LC State a cushion of 30 points. The Centurions scored at the buzzer to end the game with the Warriors in front 82-54.
Yenor led the Warriors with 18 points including a 6-for-7 performance from behind the 3-point line. He was 6-for-9 from the field and also led the team with seven rebounds. Mitchell tallied 11 points while grabbing six rebounds and six assists. Bradley rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points.
LC State saw big contributions from Courtney (nine points) and Bennion (eight points) in their collegiate debuts. Each tallied a steal and grabbed a combined seven rebounds.
As a team, the Warriors drained 15 3-pointers and shot 62.5 percent from 3. They shot 51.8 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the foul line. 30 of LC State's 82 points came off the bench.
"It was really fun to be out there and finally be able to just play when we've been practicing for the last three or four months," Yenor said. "We just executed. People found me when I was open and we preach confidence all the time so when I'm open I shoot with confidence and my teammates found me."
LC State returns to the court tomorrow at 3 p.m. against Yellowstone Christian in the Activity Center. The game can be streamed on the Warrior Sports Network, viewed at Zany's or listened to on KOZE.
