Feb. 29—An early run from the Warriors ended up paying much higher dividends than expected, or hoped, in Lewis-Clark State’s case.
The Warriors downed the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers 74-69 in a Cascade Conference men’s basketball quarterfinal on Wednesday at the P1FCU Activity Center in Lewiston.
LCSC jumped to a 25-13 lead midway through the first half in the early run. This helped the Warriors survive a second-half push from the Mountaineers in which they got the game down to one possession a couple of different times in the closing stages of the contest.
“I thought (Eastern Oregon) did an awesome job,” LCSC coach Austin Johnson said. “I thought in the first half we got to play our basketball. … The second half, it changed. We had more turnovers than made shots in the second half and they had seven offensive rebounds. So, the second half was completely dictated by (the Mountaineers).”
Here’s how Wednesday’s down-to-the-wire Cascade Conference quarterfinal played out:
Mountaineers throw the kitchen sink at Warriors
In playoff basketball, teams try to throw out different looks than they have during the season in an effort to take their opponents off guard. That’s exactly what Eastern Oregon (12-17) tried to do.
The Mountaineers started the game with a small-ball lineup, which was manned in the post by 6-foot-6 forward Preston Chandler. In that lineup, Chandler was essentially matched up man-to-man with LCSC’s big men (freshman Alton Hamilton and sophomore Anthony Peoples Jr.). Chandler’s 3-point ability played a factor in the Mountaineers’ second-half push.
Chandler scored 11 of his 14 points in the second-half and went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc during the latter 20 minutes and 4-for-4 from long range.
His 3-point shooting drew Hamilton to the top of the key, a rare spot for the first-year big man to travel on defense this season.
On defense, EOU’s game plan centered on stopping Hamilton. When the ball was given to the Fontana, Calif., native in the post, the Mountaineers would often have one of their two traditional bigs try to stonewall him and another of their guards would try to double-team and trap.
This led to several turnovers for Hamilton, but it also led to him being fouled.
The Warriors’ freshman big went a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line and finished with a near double-double of 13 points and nine rebounds.
“It all comes back down to — it’s been a long year. And I’ve built a lot of trust in my teammates,” Hamilton said. “So I can go into these games with confidence no matter what they throw at me. Whether that’s me going one-on-one with somebody or facing a double and looking for my teammates, I trust that my teammates are going to be ready anywhere.”
Defense holds strong down the stretch
Five LCSC players scored in double figures (Hamilton, senior guard Sam Stockton, senior guard Davian Brown, senior forward Jaedon Bradley and sophomore forward John Lustig), but it was the defense that ended up securing the win for the Warriors (22-7).
Stockton scored all 13 of his points in the first half, which helped give LCSC a big enough cushion to play from ahead when Eastern Oregon was making its run.
But, with a tick under two minutes left, critical defensive stops from Brown, Stockton, Bradley and junior guard Quentin Raynor ended up keeping the Mountaineers from tying or taking the lead.
Bradley made the final defensive stop with under 30 seconds left in the game and the Warriors up by five to stop the Mountaineers from getting within one possession. The stop came with the score 74-69 LCSC, which ended up holding for the final result.
“We know playoff basketball teams are going to throw all sorts of new things at us and give us their best shot,” Stockton said. “And having beaten (Eastern Oregon) twice, they came in with a little extra fire and a little different lineup. So, we really just had to be prepared for everything. And I think we executed with most every lineup, especially defensively.”
One last homestand
The Warriors, as the No. 2 seed in the Cascade Conference tournament, are guaranteed one more home game, which they will play at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday against the Oregon Tech Owls at the P1FCU Activity Center in Lewiston. Lewis-Clark State beat the Owls and the Southern Oregon Raiders in a pair of away games to end the regular season. It was the only team to go 2-0 on that road trip out of all teams in the Cascade Conference.
The Warriors will guarantee a spot in the NAIA tournament with a win against Oregon Tech. The win is almost a necessity for LCSC to secure a continued stay in the postseason. The team has been projected as a bubble squad the whole season, according to NAIA Hoops bracketology.
“Oregon Tech is the best transition offensive team in the country,” Johnson said. “So, for us it’s really going to come down to our energy and our toughness. We need to make shots, we need to play good basketball. But OIT is able to impose their will physically because of how hard they play and how fast they play. … So for us, we need to make sure we’re ready to match that.”
EASTERN OREGON (12-17)
Hansen 4-6 2-2 10, Huddleston 4-8 1-2 9, Chandler 4-5 2-2 14, Hillman 3-16 4-5 10, Hawkes 7-19 6-7 22, Newsom 1-1 0-0 2, Orr 1-3 0-0 2, Muhammad 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-58 15-18 69.
LEWIS-CLARK STATE (22-7)
Lustig 5-6 1-1 12, Brown 3-7 4-4 11, Stockton 5-6 1-2 13, Bradley 5-12 1-2 13, Hamilton 2-3 9-9 13, Raynor 2-9 0-0 5, Peoples Jr. 2-2 0-0 4, Boykins 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 25-47 16-18 74.
Halftime — Lewis-Clark State 40-29. 3-point goals — Eastern Oregon 6-21 (Chandler 4-4, Hawkes 2-7, Hillman 0-3, Orr 0-2, Hansen 0-1); Lewis-Clark State 8-21 (Bradley 2-6, Stockton 2-2, Raynor 1-8, Brown 1-3, Lustig 1-1, Boykins 1-1). Rebounds — Eastern Oregon 25 (Huddleston, Hillman 4); Lewis-Clark State 33 (Hamilton 9). Assists — Eastern Oregon 10 (Hansen, Huddleston 3); Lewis-Clark State 14 (Stockton 4). Total fouls — Eastern Oregon 17; Lewis-Clark State 18. Technical fouls — Lewis-Clark State 1 (Brown). Fouled out — none. Attendance — 529.
Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.
