EUGENE, Ore. – Warrior Men's Basketball earned its third straight victory in a hard-fought battle with the Bushnell University Beacons.
Khalil Stevenson led the LC State offense with 20 points, including a 4-for-5 performance from behind the 3-point line. The Warriors move to 11-8 in Cascade Conference play with the 71-60 win.
"The guys gutted it out tonight," Head Coach
Austin Johnson said. "Obviously, our first half gave us enough momentum to hold on late. Those first 20 minutes were great team basketball. We struggled to string together positive possessions in the second half, but very proud of our guys for staying committed and together to get the win. We have a tough turnaround tomorrow against a rested Corban squad, so we'll need to move on quickly."
Oreon Courtney put the Warriors on the board in the first possession of the contest before
Al Sommerfield made it 5-0 with a 3-pointer three minutes in. A triple by Stevenson made it an 8-2 advantage.
Baskets by Stevenson and Courtney kept LC in front 12-5, and another 3 by Sommerfield pushed the lead to 10 at 12:54. Courtney threw down a dunk to keep the difference at 10, 21-11, and Stevenson and
Silas Bennion combined for five straight points to make it 26-13 with eight minutes left in the half.
Kalani Sapwell added to LC's tally of 3s in the last six minutes of the half and Bennion scored four straight as the Warriors widened the margin to close out the frame.
Sam Stockton drained the seventh 3-pointer of the half for LC at 2:08 to push the lead to 42-20, and the Warriors led 43-21 at the break.
Bushnell caught fire with a 13-2 run to open the second half. Stevenson pushed the lead back to 14 (48-34) five minutes in, but the Beacons continued to cut into the LC lead. Sommerfield cut the Bushnell run with a 3, but the Beacons continued to fire off shots of their own to cut the margin to three with seven minutes on the clock.
A layup by Stevenson sparked a short run, fueled by free throws from
Nathan Fromm and Sommerfield, to keep LC ahead by a slim margin.
Brennen Newsom added a bucket to make it a seven-point difference, 60-53, in the final minutes.
The Warriors continued to rebuild the lead with baskets by Fromm and Courtney, and free throws by Fromm and Stevenson closed out the contest for LC.
Stevenson led the Warriors with 20 points in the contest. He was 6-for-10 from the field, 4-for-5 from 3-point range for 4-for-4 from the foul line. Sommerfield added 13 points with three 3-pointers and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Bennion tallied 11 points, grabbed nine boards and dished out seven assists. He was 7-for-10 from the free throw line.
The Warriors held Bushnell to 22.2 percent from 3-point range.
LC State takes on Corban in Salem, Ore., on Saturday at 5 p.m.
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