LEWISTON, Idaho – The only negative for No. 22 LC State Women's Basketball on Thursday was that the contest with NCAA Division III No. 23 Whitman was an exhibition. Had the stats counted, the Warriors would've added a 66-60 victory to their season and
Callie Stevens would have a career-high of 32 points. Regardless, LC State put together a solid outing to build off of heading into Saturday's matchup with Montana Tech.
"One of the disappointing things about tonight is that it was an exhibition game," Head Coach
Brian Orr said. "When you have a player that steps up with a career-high 32 points, and then it doesn't count, it's disappointing. But this was a really good game for us."
Stevens single-handedly outscored Whitman in the first quarter with 14 points, compared to the Blues' 13. Whitman took a 4-2 lead to open the contest, but a 3 by Stevens and layup by
Hannah Broyles quickly put LC ahead 7-4 by 5:10. Stevens hit two more 3s after a basket by
Sara Muehlhausen to grow the margin to six, 15-9, at 3:39, and
Lindsey Wilson,
Payton Hymas and Stevens combined for the final eight points of the frame to make it 23-13 LC State.
The Blues went on a 12-0 run to take a 25-23 advantage midway through the second quarter and held the Warriors off the board for nearly five minutes. Stevens gave the lead back to the Warriors with a pair of free throws, then made good on a foul shot after a made 3 to bring the score to 31-26 in favor of the Warriors at 3:23. Back-to-back baskets by Muehlhausen pushed the lead to nine by the 1:40 mark before ending the half with LC ahead 37-30.
Stevens matched a pair of Whitman free throws to begin the third quarter before sparking a run of seven, fueled by a 3 from Broyles and a jumper by Muehlhausen, to give LC a 48-37 cushion at 1:46. The Warriors started the final 10 minutes with a 48-41 lead.
LC opened the fourth quarter with 11 straight points on baskets from
Maddie Holm, Sander, Stevens and Muehlhausen to stretch the margin to 59-41 at 5:51. A triple by Stevens gave LC its largest lead of the game, 19 points (64-45) at 3:58, and a basket by Hymas closed out the scoring for the Warrior women.
LC State made 46.4 percent of its shots and eight 3-pointers, with seven from Stevens. The Warriors held Whitman to a .324 performance from the floor and .208 (5-for-24) from 3-point range. The defense had 12 steals and nine blocks, but LC was outrebounded 44-38.
"Whitman gave us a lot of pressure on defense and denied passes, things that we really need to work on, and I think we are going to improve from this game," Orr said. "Even though it was an exhibition game, we definitely got better and a lot of people stepped up.
Ellie Sander had a great all-around game. She is a stat-stuffer. I thought
Maddie Holm came through with some big offensive rebounds for us, and Sara was solid all night long. It was a total-team win."
Stevens led the night with 32 points on a 7-for-9 performance from behind the 3-point line. She was 10-for-17 from the field and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe while leading the team with five assists. Sander filled the stat sheet with eight points, six rebounds, five steals, four assists and three blocks. Muehlhausen added 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, and Holm tallied seven rebounds, five blocks, four assists, four points and three steals.
UP NEXT
The Warriors continue their homestand on Saturday when they take on Montana Tech at 4 p.m. The last time the two faced off resulted in the first triple-overtime game for the LC State women, with the Warriors earning a 79-74 win.
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