Lewis-Clark State men's basketball gets the win against Corban

Dec. 16—Coming into Friday's game at the P1FCU Activity Center, the Lewis-Clark State Warriors were shorthanded. Freshman guard MaCarhy Morris is out for the season after getting foot surgery for an injury suffered a game Dec. 2 against Evergreen State College and sophomore forward Grayson Hunt is out with an ankle sprain.

It didn't seem to phase coach Austin Johnson's squad on Friday.

Lewis-Clark State (6-4, 4-0) beat the visiting Corban (Ore.) Warriors 78-49 to take sole possession of first place in the Cascade Conference standings.

"That's ultimately what it's about," Johnson said. "The biggest thing is to, hopefully, start establishing a belief. So even if we do trip up here and there or have a tough road trip that doesn't go our way, our guys hopefully are developing a firm belief in themselves and the game plan."

Here's how the Warriors were able to take the steps to establish that belief against Corban (5-3, 3-1) on Friday:

Establishing some room

LCSC was able to build a double-digit lead in the first half and wasn't at a major disadvantage in any statistical category, but it still needed every point to survive a second-half run by the Warriors from Oregon.

Before Corban went on that run, Lewiston's Warriors benefited from an efficient first half, something that ended up paying extreme dividends.

Both rosters featured capable bigs and shooters, but the visiting Warriors and LCSC both elected to create shots inside and rely on scoring in the paint and at the foul line rather than look for chances outside.

The LC Warriors took better advantage of this gameplan. Despite being outshot by Corban (31 attempts to 28), LCSC was more efficient — shooting 50% from the floor for the first half compared to 35% from the opposition.

The home Warriors got more foul calls in the first half and saw the free-throw line more, attempting 10 shots to the visiting Warriors' four.

LCSC also earned its advantage in part due to the contributions of sophomore guard John Lustig and senior forward Jaedon Bradley, who both scored 14 of their 17 respective points in the first 20 minutes.

"We got to the free-throw line early and I think we were up on the foul count," Lustig said. "That helped us get into a rhythm."

Despite its inefficiencies, Corban hadn't been playing sloppily and wasn't turning the ball over. It felt like they were still in the game while at an 11-point deficit at halftime.

Minor setback

The visiting Warriors began the second half on an 8-2 run, pulling to within 40-35 of the LC Warriors with 15:16 left in the game.

Johnson called a timeout to rally his players, and the break worked.

LCSC outscored Corban 38-14 the rest of the way for the 29-point margin.

The hometown Warriors were able to pull further ahead due to firmer decisiveness and aggression on offense and defense. They were more aggressive while defending the perimeter, resulting in a lot of contested looks and poor passes, and were more decisive in their shot-taking on offense: They attempted 33 shots in the second half to 28 in the first.

"I think we slowed down a little bit (coming out of halftime)," junior guard Quentin Raynor said. "I don't think we had a very good warmup at halftime. But once we locked in and started to focus at the end, we just went on a good run. It really starts on defense though."

That defense provided several highlights. Senior guard Davian Brown had a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup and senior guard Sam Stockton and junior guard Gorden Boykins both had a block on one possession against the Oregon Warriors' junior forward Noah Viera. Viera has six inches in height on Stockton and seven on Boykins.

Working with what you have

With Morris out for the season and Hunt estimated to be out until mid-January, it'll be on Johnson and the remaining players on the LCSC roster to maintain its lead, or at least a decent standing in conference before returning to a nine or 10-man rotation again.

Johnson tinkered with the players on the court several times during the game. He went with a small-ball approach, his typical one-post preference, and had two posts out on the court at the end of the game.

The sixth-year LCSC coach is still working out the best way to rotate players in as the season progresses. He also has three additional players in Jayceon Smith, Erick Chaney and Josh Salguero, who all have games remaining on their redshirt limit.

"We're pretty much playing eight guys," Johnson said. "And there's a lot of negatives to that, but one of the positives is when you have eight guys, you know they're all going to play. ... You still got to mess with some certain lineups. Some guys we didn't think would play much together to start the year, but now, we got to get all these guys playing together more."

Players of the game

Bradley had a double-double with 11 rebounds to go with his 17 points. Lustig had 17 on 5-for-11 shooting to go with four rebounds, two assists and a block.

Boykins had another do-it-all performance, posting six points with eight rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.

CORBAN (5-3, 3-1)

Anderson 3-10 0-0 6, Hinton 2-4 0-0 4, Van Lierop 1-3 0-0 3, Warmouth 1-7 5-5 7, Milosevic 3-6 2-2 9, Polk 4-14 3-5 12, Knox 0-0 0-0 0, Wilson 1-3 1-2 3, Helaire II 0-7 0-0 0, Viera 1-4 1-1 3, Classen 0-1 2-2 2, Roth 0-3 0-0 0, Franklin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-62 14-17 49.

LEWIS-CLARK STATE (6-4, 4-0)

Lustig 5-11 6-6 17, Brown 4-9 2-2 10, Stockton 3-5 2-3 8, Bradley 7-18 1-3 17, Hamilton 3-3 2-2 8, Raynor 2-9 2-2 8, Peoples Jr. 2-2 0-0 4, Boykins 2-4 2-2 6. Totals 28-61 17-20 78.

Corban 27 22—49

Lewis-Clark State 38 40—78

Halftime — Lewis-Clark State 38-27; Rebounds — Corban 33 (Helaire II 5); Lewis-Clark State 51 (Bradley 11). Assists — Corban 5 (Anderson 2); Lewis-Clark State 10 (Lustig, Stockton, Boykins 2). Total fouls — Corban 17; Lewis-Clark State 19. Technical fouls — Corban 1 (Wilson). Fouled out — none. Attendance — 458.

Kowatsch can be contacted at 208-848-2268, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.