HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College en's basketball team came back from an 18-point deficit to tie the game with 3:20 left but couldn't get over the hump and fell to No. 21 Lewis-Clark 62-59 Saturday evening at the PE Center in Helena.
The loss broke a four-game Carroll win streak that pushed the Saints to the second-place position in the conference race.
The first half was a defensive bout, Lewis-Clark held the Saints to 7-of-29 (24.1 percent) from the field while Carroll forced 11 turnovers. Eventually, the Warriors gained the upper hand and built a 26-15 lead at the half.
The Saints were able to cut the lead to 33-24 but a 12-3 run gave LC-State a 45-27 advantage with 10:18 left in the game, that is when the Saints finally got the offense going.
A Carroll team that had struggled on offense all night suddenly exploded with a 20-2 run to tie the game at 47 with 4:21 left in the game on a monster alley-oop from Alex Santos Piqueras to
Ryan Imhoff.
"We had several guys make good basketball plays to get us going in the second half," head coach Cunningham said. "Santos made a couple of nifty passes and had a couple of steals that helped us out,
Oliver Carr played another fantastic ball game and
Ryan Imhoff came up huge for us with some fantastic shots. Defensively, our energy got us going."
The teams traded baskets and were again tied at 51 with 3:20 left on the clock. LC-State built the lead back to seven (58-51) with 48 seconds left but Imhoff hit back-to-back threes to cut it to 58-57 with 34 seconds left.
The Saints immediately fouled and Jamaal Thomas hit both of free throws to extend the lead back to 60-57.
Zayn Kirkendoll cut it back to one (60-59) with a contested layup on the other end and the Saints fouled again.
This time it was Trea Thomas shooting free throws and he hit both of his shots to give Lewis-Clark the 62-59 lead. The Saints had two shots,
Patrick Colberg missed a baseline three with three seconds left, Jamaal Thomas got the rebound for the Warriors but stepped out of bounds with three seconds left.
The Saints got the ball back into Imhoffs' hands but his off-balance shot rimmed out at the buzzer and LC-State got the win.
"We have to get better daily habits so they are automatic in a game," Cunningham said. "We had chances but we didn't follow through on them. As a coaching staff we have to take responsibility for that make sure that those habits are automatic."
Despite the disappointing loss, Cunningham knows that it is just another part of the learning process for a young team.
"This group has a great competitive spirit and we're not going to let this get us too down," Cunningham said. "We need learn and be willing to grow from this experience. There is a lot of lessons out there to be had and we're going to have to digest them and improve our execution in practice."
The Saints fall to 18-9 overall and 7-6 in Frontier Conference play, tied with Rocky Mountain for third in the league and a half-game back of LC-State for second place.
The Saints were 22-of-62 (36.1 percent) from the field but were 15-of-32 (46.9 percent) in the second half and outscored LC-State 44-36 after the half.
The Saints held Lewis-Clark over 25 points below their season average (87.8 PPG) and forced 26 turnovers.
"Defensively we had great energy," Cunningham said. "Our guys were fired up, executing well and we turned them over a lot, but unfortunately it didn't transfer to the other side of the ball."
Carr scored 20 points to lead Carroll, Imhoff added 14 points and
Zach Taylor scored 11 points.
Carroll next hosts Rocky Mountain on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the PE Center in the regular-season finale.
