LEWISTON, Idaho – Despite winning three consecutive conference championships, there has been one thing the Lewis-Clark State College men's basketball team hasn't been able to do during that time.
Cut down the nets in front of the home crowd.
The Warriors won consecutive Frontier Conference Championships in 2018-19 and 2019-20, both on the road, and then clinched the Cascade Collegiate Conference title in Caldwell last month, each time earning a berth to the NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship.
And in what has been a very different year, the Warriors could have a different outcome this weekend.
LC State will play host to the Opening Round of the national tournament. Instead of the usual 32-team national tournament at one site, this year features 48 teams divided into 16 three-team pods for opening-round action. In each pod, the No. 3 seed will play the No. 2 seed on Friday, and the winner advances on to play the No. 1 seed on Saturday. The 16 pod winners advance to the national tourney on March 18-23 in Kansas City, Mo.
Lewis-Clark State will be a spectator the first day of its pod as No. 2 seed Vanguard of Costa Mesa, Calif., takes on No. 3 Benedictine-Mesa of Arizona on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Vanguard, 8-3 overall, tied Westmont for the Golden State Athletic Conference West Division title, but was declared the champion based on beating Westmont in two of its three meetings. Benedictine-Mesa is 5-8, but won the Cal Pac Tournament title to secure the program's first berth to the national tournament. LC State will play the winner at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
There are two men's and two women's pods being played at LC State during the two days. In the second men's pod, No. 2 Carroll and No. 3 Texas Wesleyan meet at 2:30 p.m. on Friday and the winner will take on Arizona Christian on Saturday, also at 2:30 p.m.
LC STATE (18-1 OVERALL) – No. 1 seed
A win in Saturday's game would have the Warriors cutting down the nets in front of their limited home crowd.
"We are so excited and grateful to still be playing," LC Coach
Austin Johnson said. "I give a lot of credit to our administration for bidding to host the opening round. It gives us a chance to show off the school, the community and area. We are excited and thankful because honestly, we didn't play any games in November and we really weren't sure there would be a season."
The Warriors, however, put together quite the season. LC is 18-1 overall and ranked No. 4 in the NAIA. The Warriors lone loss is to No. 5 Arizona Christian, a team they also beat in their two meetings in early January. On that particular road trip to Arizona, LC also defeated Benedictine Mesa 83-56, but Johnson said Benedictine Mesa was also missing a couple of their top players.
LC State ranks among the top 10 in the NAIA in eight categories. They are No. 3 in defensive rebounds per game at 32.6 and in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 37.6 percent shooting. LC also is fifth in scoring margin, outscoring opponents by an average of 20.8 points per game, and is sixth in scoring defense, holding opponents to 65.4 points per outing.
"We have to take care of the basketball and defend at the level we are capable of," Johnson said. "We need to limit our turnovers and take care of the basketball."
The Warriors enter the game the healthiest they have been in a while. Jake Albright, who missed the final two games of the season, has been a full participant at practice and Travis Yenor returned to action late after missing half of the season with a hand injury.
Senior post Trystan Bradley leads LC at 16.3 points per game and is second to Albright in rebounding at 6.4 per outing. Damek Mitchell (14.7), Hodges Bailey (12.4) and Yenor (10.3) are also averaging in double figures. LC State has eight players averaging at least 7.0 points per game.
Last week, Mitchell was named the conference's Player of the Year and joined Bradley and Bailey on the all-conference team. Bailey was also chosen the Defensive Player of the Year, and Johnson was named Coach of the Year. Freshman Oreon Courtney was voted the Newcomer of the Year.
Johnson said because LC won't know its opponent until after Friday night's contest, it has mainly focused on itself during the past couple of weeks at practice, but has thrown in a wrinkle or two used by their possible opponents.
"To be honest, I've never been in this situation before," Johnson said. "It's easy to sit here and look at the positives. It's really unique being a host and getting a bye so I really can't complain about the situation. But I told the team we are going to be playing one of the most confident teams in the country because they will be coming off a national tournament win. They will have a ton of mojo, excitement and confidence. But we have that as well. We deserve to be where we are at."
This is the 16th year, including the last seven consecutive, LC State has qualified for the men's national tournament. The Warriors best finish was two years ago when it reached the semifinal round.
VANGAURD (8-3 OVERALL) – No. 2 seed
Vanguard is counting its blessing being in Lewiston because COVID wiped out seven of its first scheduled eight games. In fact, the club played only one game on Dec. 4 before basically restarting the season on Jan. 31 and playing its final 10 games during that time.
Vanguard beat the University of Saint Katherine in three of their four meetings and then took two of three from league foes Westmont and Hope International to tie for the league title. In its final outing on Feb. 27, Vanguard lost an exhibition game to California Baptist 78-65.
The trip to Lewiston will be the first time the team has traveled outside of California in more than a year.
The Lions' strength is their defense. The team leads the NAIA in defensive rebounds and is in the top 30 in rebounding margin, field goal percentage defense, scoring margin and defensive points allowed.
Garrett White, who is from Post Falls, Idaho, and Aziz Seck lead the team in scoring and rebounding. White, at 6-foot-4, is averaging 14.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, while Seck, a 6-7 senior transfer from Northern Arizona, is at 12.5 points and 5.9 rebounds.
This is Vanguard's fifth trip to the national tournament, which it won in 2014. Its last appearance came in 2019.
BENEDICTINE MESA (5-8 OVERALL) – No. 3 seed
The Redhawks went 0-for in 2020 this season as the team didn't pick up its first win until Jan. 9 against Ottawa University of Arizona. The loss of eight straight games, however, is a bit misleading as four were exhibition games against NCAA Division I teams UTEP, San Jose State, New Mexico State and Grand Canyon.
In its four regular-season losses, all were against nationally ranked NAIA programs, including three that were ranked seventh or higher at the time. After another lopsided exhibition loss to NCAA Division 1 UNLV, the Redhawks rallied to win four of their final six games.
This season, the Cal Pac Conference consisted of only three schools – Benedictine Mesa, Saint Katherine, and Simpson. Benedictine Mesa and Saint Katherine split their regular season games, which turned out to be the only conference games. Simpson didn't start its season until January.
For the conference tournament, the Cal Pac decided to play a round-robin event and if there was a tie, the tie would be broken by a point differential. The Redhawks came to life and defeated Saint Katherine by one point, 66-65, and then won the title and a berth to nationals with an 83-69 win over Simpson.
Maurice Walton, a 6-9 senior forward, leads the club at 18.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, while Tre Carolina and Austin Denham are at 14.2 points each.
DETAILS
Per NAIA and local guidelines, 400 spectators will be permitted in the Activity Center for each game of the tournament. Tickets are valid for single games only and the Activity Center will be cleared out after each game. Fans can watch the games on livestream by visiting
www.lcwarriors.com/watch. The cost for a men's pass on Friday is $20 and will include both men's games, and Saturday the cost will be $30 because they are championship games.
Tickets for Friday, March 12 will be $10 per game, and $15 on Saturday, March 13. 100 tickets will be allocated to both the visiting teams and home teams, per NAIA regulations. There will be 50 tickets allocated to LC State students. Any unclaimed tickets will be sold at the ticket window.
Concessions will not be sold and no food or beverages will be allowed in the facility. Masks are required at all times.
Stay up to date with all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com and on social media @LCWarriors.