SPOKANE, Washington – The first 30 minutes of Saturday’s contest between the No. 7 Lewis-Clark State Men’s Basketball team and the NCAA DIII No. 19 Whitworth Pirates was a back-and-forth battle. The Warriors took control in the final 10 minutes to run away with an 86-74 victory for their fourth win of the season. Travis Yenor led the Warriors with 21 points in the contest.
“Today was another tough win for our guys,” Head Coach Austin Johnson said. “We still struggled mightily with turnovers, but our ball movement was much better which led to a lot of open shots.”
The game opened with a 10-0 run by Whitworth, answered by a 12-0 run from the Warriors.
Whitworth opened the game with 10 points to take an early lead over LC State before a layup from Khalil Stevenson cut the Pirates’ run and put the Warriors on the board. Free throws by Trystan Bradley cut the deficit to 10-4 at 16:35, and a 3-pointer by Jake Albright made it a seven-point run with LC down by three.
Yenor evened the score with a 3 on an assist from Damek Mitchell as the Warriors matched the Whitworth 10-0 run. Oreon Courtney put LC State in front with a layup to make it a 12-0 rally. Yenor answered a Whitworth 3 with one of his own to keep the Warriors in front 15-13 as the game of runs became one of back-and-forth.
Yenor drained another 3 to make it 18-16 LC State at 13:17, then Courtney threw down a dunk and Mitchell made a 3 to make it 23-17. Silas Bennion hit a 3-point, assisted by Stevenson, at 8:56 to make it a five-point game at 28-23, but a short run by the Pirates cut the lead back to one.
A layup by Bradley was followed by on by Courtney to grow the lead to 34-29 with under five minutes to play in the half. Whitworth struck for back-to-back baskets before Yenor responded with his fourth 3-pointer of the game to give the Warriors a 37-33 advantage with 3:50 on the clock.
The Pirates went on a 7-0 run to take a 40-37 lead with just over two minutes to go, but another 3 by Yenor knotted things up 40-40. A dunk by Courtney gave LC back the lead at 42-40, but it was again tied heading into the final seconds.
Courtney went to the free throw line with six seconds remaining in the half and drained a pair to give the Warriors a two-point edge, but a long 3 by the Pirates at the buzzer had Whitworth ahead 45-44 at the half.
Yenor led the Warriors in the first half with 17 points, including a 5-for-6 performance from behind the 3-point line. Courtney was also in double-digits with 12 points.
Bradley opened the second half with a free throw to tie the game 45-45, and his layup at 17:59 made it 47-46. A 3-pointer by Brock Henry kept the Warriors in front by a slim lead. After sitting at 52-50 for three minutes, the Pirates tied the game. The tie did not last long as the Warriors scored eight straight with a layup from Mitchell, a 3 from Yenor and a three-point play by Bennion to put LC State up 60-52 at 12:27.
A 3-pointer by Bennion sparked an eight-point run to give the Warriors a 69-59 advantage at 8:43. A 12-1 run, that included eight points from Henry, gave the Warriors their largest lead of the game (86-69) with under two minutes to play.
LC State closed out the trip with an 86-74 victory to move to 4-0 on the season.
Yenor led the Warriors with 21 points in the contest. He was 6-for-8 from 3-point range and 7-for-9 from the field. He filled us the stat sheet with five rebounds and five assists.
“Travis Yenor got us going offensively and then in the second half we did a much better job of going inside,” Johnson explained.
Albright led the defense with 12 rebounds to go with seven points and three assists. Courtney and Henry each had career days, with Courtney going 5-for-6 from the floor to score a career-best 14 points, and Henry draining 4-of-5 including 3-of-4 from 3 to total a career-high 11 points. Mitchell added 11 points and six assists. Bennion had a perfect performance going 3-for-3 from the floor, 2-for-2 from 3 and 1-for-1 at the line for his nine points.
“Oreon, Brock and Silas gave us a huge push down the stretch when we needed it most,” Johnson said. “It was a great team win.”
As a team, the Warriors shot 59.2 percent (29-for-49) from the floor and 54.2 percent (13-for24) from 3. They drained 15 free throws and outrebounded the Pirates 36-24. 30 of the LC State points came off the bench.