| PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The No. 24 Lewis-Clark State women’s basketball team filled up the stat sheet in an all-around dominant contest to open the road trip to Arizona Wednesday. LC State defeated Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) 79-61 behind 13 3-pointers and 12 steals.
Every Warrior got in on the action as 12 both scored and grabbed a rebound. 11 different Warriors contributed an assist and six had steals.
“The way we started the game was fantastic today,” Head Coach Caelyn Orlandi said. “We came out with great energy, forced turnovers and got great shots offensively. Embry-Riddle is a great team and does a great job defensively and it was a perfect match up for us. Collectively we shared the ball well and I love to see the continuous balanced attack and points coming from nearly every player in the stat sheet. Winning on the road is so tough and the poise we demonstrated tonight was impressive. We play a tough Park-Gilbert team tomorrow and have to turn around and get ready for one more.”
The victory improves the Warrior record to 2-0 on the young season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sitara Byrd opened the scoring in the contest and the Warriors took control early. Payton Hymas hit a jumper to start a 12-point run that saw a pair of 3-pointers by Byrd and layups by Ellie Sander to give LC State a 14-2 advantage by 4:46. Camden Barger drained a 3 and Darian Herring added a basket after a run by the Eagles for a 19-11 advantage at 2:18. Lindsey Wilson found her way to the basket before Sander took a steal back for a layup.
The Warriors led 23-11 after 10 minutes.
Tatum Brager netted a triple in the first 30 seconds of the second frame and Wilson and Byrd added to the back-and-forth to keep the margin at 30-18 at 8:04. Barger drained her second 3-pointer before Ella Nelson capped a short five-point span at 6:36 with LC in front 35-20. ERAU kept pace with LC State as the Warriors got baskets from Byrd, Herring, Tessa Karlberg and Mataya Green to push the score to 44-31 by the 1:50 mark.
Sander drained a 3 in the final minute to give LC State a 47-33 lead at the half.
The back-and-forth continued into the second half as buckets by Green and Herring balanced out tallies by ERAU. Hymas hit a triple and Sander scored while the Warriors held the Eagles off the board for three minutes, and a layup by Herring pushed the lead to 58-39 midway through the third quarter.
After a short scoring drought for both teams, Wilson fought her way to the basket and Karlberg added her second 3-pointer in the final minute of the frame. The Warriors took a 63-47 cushion into the final 10 minutes.
Kendall Wallace grabbed an offensive board and turned it into an assist on a 3 by Grace Beardin. Karlberg made it back-to-back LC State3-pointers. Hymas pushed the rub to eight points on an assist from Herring at 5:26 for a 71-49 advantage.
A free throw by Beardin kicked off the final four minutes for the Warriors and Wallace added a pair of triples as the clock ran down. Keira O’Neill knocked down a free throw
STAT RECAP
Byrd led the Warriors in scoring with 12 points and four rebounds. Sander added 11 points, five steals and three assists, and Karlberg added nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range.
Herring filled up the box score with eight points, five assists and three blocks, and Hymas tallied seven points and three steals.
The Warriors shot .485 as a team and .464 from 3-point range. LC State had 24 assists on 32 made baskets and collected 12 steals as a team. The Warrior women totaled 13 3-pointers with eight different players draining at least one.
UP NEXT
LC State wraps up its Arizona trip on Thursday with a contest at Park-Gilbert (Ariz.) in Mesa, Ariz. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m.
Stay up to date with all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com and on social media @LCWarriors. |
