LA GRANDE, Ore. – The women of LC State Basketball (9-1, 3-1) suffered their first loss of the season after a tight battle with the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers in La Grande, Ore., on Friday night. The Mounties used a 3-pointer with seven seconds left in the game to lift themselves over LC by a final of 72-70.
Callie Stevens did all she could with 20 points in the contest, including four 3-pointers, but LC State came up short in the final seconds. Both teams are now 3-1 in Cascade Conference play.
"Every loss hurts, but the first one hurts a little more. And when you lose after giving up the lead, it's the worst," Head Coach
Brian Orr said. "Give credit to Eastern. They outplayed us in the second half. We played well enough to win, but we had a couple costly turnovers down the stretch and they were able to take advantage."
After a scoreless contest through the first two minutes, EOU put the first points on the board to give the Mountaineers an early edge.
Callie Stevens evened the score at 7:22 before
Hannah Broyles put LC in front with a jump shot less than a minute later. Broyles and Stevens went back-to-back for five straight points to keep the Warriors in front by a slim 11-9 margin in the opening quarter.
Ellie Sander drained a long 3 to help LC State keep pace with EOU and give the Warriors a 14-13 advantage with under a minute left in the frame. LC held the lead at the end of the first 10 minutes.
EOU opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run before LC responded with a 7-2 rally.
Rachel Schroeder fought her way to the basket to get the momentum going. Stevens hit a 3-pointer to cut further into the Mountie lead, and
Heidi Sellmann made it a one-point game, 22-21, at 4:58.
Broyles evened things with a triple before putting the Warriors in front 30 seconds later. A 3-pointer by
Maddie Holm, followed by another from Broyles, made it 11 straight from LC State to grow the lead to 32-24 by 2:48 and force a Mountie timeout. Holm added on to cap the run at 13 and make it a 10-point difference.
Mataya Green and
Adyson Clabby both scored in the final minute as the Warrior women went into the break with a 38-29 advantage.
The Mounties used a 26-18 third quarter to cut the Warrior lead to just one by the end of the frame. Stevens put LC on the board in the second half with four free throws, the first for either team in the contest. Holm and
Sara Muehlhausen combined for a pair of baskets to keep the Warriors ahead by 10, but EOU rallied to cut the difference to three by the 3:30 mark in the third quarter.
A 3-pointer by EOU's Sailor Liefke in the final seconds sent the game into the final quarter with the Warriors leading 56-55.
EOU took the lead in the first seconds of the fourth, but Schroeder responded with one of her own to put LC back in front 58-57. The back-and-forth continued until the Mounties rallied to take a 65-60 lead in the last five minutes.
Stevens struck for back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Warriors back in front. Muehlhausen added on to make it an eight-point stretch. EOU responded in the final minute to cut the LC lead to one at 70-69 before the Mounties drained a game-ending 3 to hand the Warriors their first loss of the season.
Stevens led all scorers with her 20 points, and Broyles added 14. Holm led the contest with 11 boards to go with her nine points and Sellmann grabbed eight. Holm and Sellmann each dished out four assists, Muehlhausen blocked four shots and Holm tallied two steals.
The Warriors shot 40.6 percent from the field and forced 13 turnovers. EOU outrebounded the Warriors 45-40 and drained 11 3-pointers.
"It's never fun when you don't win, but we can learn a lot from this game," Orr said. "We can't hang our heads because we will get into Caldwell at about midnight from a 3 p.m. (MT) tip."
LC State has a quick turnaround with a contest at College of Idaho on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT.
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