LEWISTON, Idaho – The Warriors are playing their best basketball, and it's coming at the best time possible. In a stunning victory over the No. 6 Carroll College Fighting Saints, the 22
nd-ranked LC State squad punched its ticket to Sioux City, Iowa to compete in the NAIA's round of 16. The energy in the stands rivaled that on the court as a packed LC side competed with Carroll's fans. The Warriors came out of the locker room with their foot on the gas, and they never let up.
"You don't really have to say a lot or do a lot to get players motivated for a championship game and that's really what this was," Head Coach
Brian Orr said. "The winner goes on and the losers go home, so with a chance to go to the round of 16, our players were self-motivated."
The Warrior women faced Carroll three times during the regular season and came away with a win in just one of the meetings. LC also fell to the Saints in a game that could've clinched a regular-season conference title a year ago.
"We have lost a couple close games to Carroll," Orr said. "They (the seniors) have gone through that adversity, they faced it and overcome it, I really think they were hardened by it and they came out with it and played with tremendous determination today."
Kiara Burlage wasted little time getting the Warriors on the board with a 3-pointer off the opening tipoff. LC held the Saints scoreless for over two minutes when Carroll turned it into a one-point game. The Saints took the lead a minute later, but a behind-the-back layup by Abbie Johnson knotted the score at five, but Peyton Souvenir led Abby Farmer to the basket to put the Warriors back in front at 5:34.
Johnson gave LC State a 10-7 advantage on an and-one play before a 3 by Farmer from Souvenir stretched the gap to six points. A triple by Burlage made it nine straight as the Warrior defense held Carroll off the board for another two and a half minutes. LC held a lead of 18-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Jansen Edmiston struck for a jumper in the first 20 seconds of the second frame. Carroll stepped up its offense to pull within six, but back-to-back buckets by Edmiston and Burlage made it 24-14. Edmiston tallied another five points to give the Warriors a 29-18 cushion and maintain the momentum as LC State headed into halftime with a 32-21 lead.
Burlage matched a Carroll basket with one of her own to start the third, and a layup by Johnson gave the Warriors a 12-point lead at 36-24. A steal by Souvenir took the ball right out of the hands of the Saints, and a few passes later Johnson capitalized with a layup, but Carroll hung within five late in the frame.
The Saints rallied to cut the LC State lead to two with 2:34 left in the third, but a shot from beyond the arc by Farmer pushed the advantage back to five, 48-43. Souvenir drove to the basket and dropped on in to give the Warriors a 50-45 lead heading into the final 10 minutes.
Maddie Holm found Burlage under the basket for an uncontested lay-in, and a steal by Muehlhausen, initiated by Farmer, kept the ball with LC State. Burlage and Johnson went back-to-back to bring the score to 54-45, and Holm added to the mix at 5:56 to make it a 56-47 advantage.
The Saints did not back down and cut into the LC lead at 56-52, but a foul sent Burlage to the line to increase the gap by two points. Key rebounds by Holm anchored the Warrior defense and allowed the offense to run big plays an allowed for a 10-point, 62-52, lead with 3:22 on the clock.
A huge 3-pointer by Burlage with two minutes to play kept the momentum on the side of the Warriors, and a pair of foul shots by the senior kept the difference at 10. A short run by Carroll made it a five-point contest with under a minute, but fouls by the Saints sent LC to the line. In the biggest game of the season, the Warriors prevailed with a 76-67 victory.
Burlage led all scorers in the contest with 27 points, one more than Carroll's Jamie Pickens. Edmiston and Johnson each scored 15 and Farmer added 13. Freshman Holm dominated the boards with a career-high 11 rebounds, and Souvenir ran the offense with seven assists.
"I thought our girls really defended well, talked and communicated well," Orr said. "Offensively, it seemed like we had player after player step up and hit big shots, and we needed them. It was really an exciting game."
LC State shot 44.6 percent from the floor and made 19 free throws (19-for-22). The Warriors held Carroll to 32.9 percent from the floor and just 13.8 percent from 3-point range.
The Warriors are heading to Sioux City, Iowa, and will find out their pairing when the NAIA makes its announcement on Saturday night.
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