LEWISTON, Idaho –
Oreon Courtney scored a career-best 28 points to help the LC State Men's Basketball team to a key victory over Southern Oregon University on Friday night. The guard notched a double-double with 10 rebounds in the 72-66 win to help keep the Warriors in the hunt for a top-four seed in the Cascade Conference Championship Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank.
"Huge win for the team tonight," Head Coach
Austin Johnson said. "They keep finding ways to be successful and get big stops down the stretch. Oreon has been one of the better players in the league the last couple weeks, and tonight was another example of just how special he can be. We need to recover quickly as we prep for a talented and rested OIT team."
Courtney and
Silas Bennion went back-to-back to open the scoring for LC State, and
Brennen Newsom kept the Warriors in front with a jumper.
Al Sommerfield hit his first 3 of the contest four minutes in, and
Kai Warren sparked a run of six to push the advantage to 17-8 midway through.
Sommerfield netted back-to-back 3s in a 40-second span, then added a jumper to make it 25-16 LC State with 6:21 to play. Another triple from Sommerfield was sandwiched by a pair of layups from Courtney, and a jumper by Bennion sent LC into the locker room ahead 38-30.
Stevenson and Courtney dropped in the first six baskets of the second half to keep the LC momentum going. The two teams battled back-and-forth throughout the half before SOU tied things up 53-53 at the halfway point. Courtney quickly broke the tie with a jumper before
Khalil Stevenson and Warren each took a charge to turn the ball back over to the Warriors.
Courtney took an assist from
Colton Spencer to stretch the difference out to four, and a dunk by Newsome kept the Warriors in front. Three free throws by Courtney made it 62-58 by 4:33, and a triple by Stevenson widened the gap to seven points. Stevenson added three more with an and-one play to push the advantage to 68-60 in the final minute.
The Warriors added two points at the foul line in the last minute to close out the victory.
Courtney led the game with 28 points and 10 rebounds. He was 12-for-15 from the floor. Sommerfield added 16 points on four 3-pointers and was 6-for-9 from the field. He grabbed sevens rebounds, had two steals and one block. Stevenson dropped 11 points and dished out a team-best five assists.
The Warriors shot 53.7 percent from the field.
LC State takes on Oregon Tech, currently second in the CCC standings, on Saturday at 5 p.m. The Warriors will honor senior Stevenson and graduate students Sommerfield and
Kevin Baker prior to the start of the contest.
Stay up to date with all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com and on social media @LCWarriors.
