LEWISTON, Idaho – The Warrior women disregarded rankings and showed out on Friday to cruise past No. 22 Oregon Tech by a final of 73-54. LC State use a balanced attack to defeat the visiting Owls to kick off the final home weekend of the regular season.
The Warriors excelled in every area of the contest. LC State outshot, outrebounded and outplayed OIT to avenge its loss from earlier this season.
Mataya Green was key to the Warrior defense and grabbed the 500
th rebound of her career with eight on the night.
"A truly fantastic win by our team tonight," coach
Caelyn Orlandi said. "I am just so extremely proud of who we are and how we are playing basketball right now. OIT is an extremely well balanced and tough team, and we knew we had to come into the game with great intensity and energy.
"OIT leads the league in rebounding margin and offensive rebounding and a huge focus this week was keeping them off the glass. They average nearly 16 offensive boards a game and to hold them to seven was great for us," Orlandi explained. "Last time we played them, we gave up 20 and our team made conscious efforts today to rebound and to be better than we were last time we played. When we can get the rebound and push the ball down the floor, it's when we are at our best."
HOW IT HAPPENED
After OIT scored on the first possession, the Warriors took control.
Sitara Byrd and Green combined for seven LC State points, and after a 3-pointer by
Ellie Sander at 3:43 the Warriors never relinquished the lead. The bucket launched a 12-point run with tallies by
Darian Herring, Byrd and Green that had the Warriors in front 22-10 after 10 minutes.
A layup by Sander and triple by Byrd continued the offensive push in the second frame. A 3 by
Grace Beardin made it 32-15 at 5:23 before
Tatum Brager,
Lindsey Wilson and
Payton Hymas pushed the score to 38-21 by 1:43. Wilson scored once more to send LC State to halftime with a 40-24 cushion.
An offensive board by Herring fed into a layup by Green to keep the Warriors in control in the second half. Byrd turned on offensive rebound into a 3-pointer and Herring took a defensive board back for a layup to make it a 52-34 advantage at 4:33. A basket by
Camden Barger gave LC a 58-42 lead with 10 minutes to play.
Sander, Beardin and Barger combined for the first five LC State points of the fourth frame, and baskets by Hymas and Wilson kept the difference at 20 points with two minutes to play. Brager drained a 3 for 73-51 lead at 1:39 to cap the scoring for the Warriors.
STAT RECAP
Byrd led the Warriors with 15 points to go with seven boards and two steals. Sander added 11 points with four steals and three assists.
Hymas and Green each scored nine points, with Hymas dishing out five assists and Green totaling eight boards. She is the third Warrior this season to record her 500
th rebound, joining Sander and Byrd. Herring finished the night with eight rebounds and eight points, while Wilson was 4-for-5 from the field for her eight points.
The Warriors shot 50% from the field and outrebounded OIT 36-28. LC State scored 14 second-chance points with nine offensive boards. The Warriors held Oregon Tech to just 1-of-13 from 3-point range.
"Overall, our defense was great tonight, and we defended the 3-point line extremely well," Orlandi said. "We had multiple great individual performances today and a big congratulations to
Mataya Green for getting her 500th rebound. She has had a fantastic senior season. Tomorrow's match up will be the biggest game of the season so far and I look forward to competing tomorrow."
OIT's Jozie Ramos led the contest with 17 points and Alexis Elquist had eight rebounds.
UP NEXT
LC State hosts Senior Night on Saturday against No. 3 Southern Oregon. The Warriors will recognize
Ellie Sander,
Mataya Green and
Tessa Karlberg in a pregame ceremony starting at 3:30 p.m. in the P1FCU Activity Center.
Stay up to date with all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com and on social media @LCWarriors.
