| LEWISTON, Idaho – Postseason action begins on Tuesday with the quarterfinal round of the Cascade Conference Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by U.S. Bank. Third-seeded Lewis-Clark State will host sixth-seeded College of Idaho in the P1FCU Activity Center at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at lcwarriors.com/tickets.
“Coach Erickson has done an excellent job his first year coaching the Yotes. His team always comes ready to compete and they work hard every possession of the game,” Head Coach Caelyn Orlandi said. “They have some excellent shooters from behind the 3-point line that we will have to lock in on defensively and they average a fourth-best 7.4 3-pointers made per game in the CCC. We will need to make sure we are defending the arc and end every defensive stand with a rebound.”
The Warrior defense held the Yotes to less than 50 points in each meeting this season and C of I did not shoot better than 34% from the field in either contest. LC State has won its last 17 meetings against College of Idaho, and another win would send the Warriors to the semifinal round of the tournament.
“Moving into postseason play our execution in our sets needs to be precise, our defensive slides efficient, and our mentality to compete for 40 minutes locked in,” Orlandi added. “College of Idaho is full of competitors and our team will need to be ready to compete from the first minute to the last one.”
General admission tickets, reserved seats and streaming passes are on sale now at lcwarriors.com. Season passes (including streaming passes) are not valid for postseason events. Tickets to the game can be purchased online or at the LC State Ticket Office.
No. 3 Seed – No. 6 LC State Warriors (23-4, 19-3)
The regular season did not end the way the Warriors were hoping after a tough road trip against a pair NAIA Top-25 teams. LC State dropped contests at No. 25 Oregon Tech and No. 22 Southern Oregon to secure the No. 3 seed in the CCC tournament. The Warriors open the tournament with a familiar foe in sixth-seeded College of Idaho.
LC State has faced the Yotes 11 times since joining the CCC in the 2020-21 season, including three postseason meetings. The Warriors are 17-0 against C of I since 2007 and took this season’s matchups by scores of 61-42 and 65-46.
The meeting in Caldwell saw 14 points from Callie Stevens and 11 from Ellie Sander. Stevens led the group on Lewiston with 15 points, while Sander and Ella Nelson each scored 13. Darian Herring notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Warriors lead the Cascade Conference in scoring margin (16.9), field goal percentage (.463), 3-point field goal percentage (.351), assists per game (18.1), steals per game (11.6), turnover margin (4.59) and assist/turnover ratio (1.4). LC is second in scoring average (76.4) 3-point field goal percentage defense (.281) and blocked shots per game (4.2), and third in scoring defense (59.5), field goal percentage defense (.362) and 3-pointers made per game (7.7).
Stevens is the fourth-leading scorer in the CCC at 17 points per game. The two-time CCC Player of the Year is eighth in 3-point percentage (.366) and fourth in 3-pointers made per game (2.7).
Four Warriors rank in the top 10 for field goal percentage. Lindsey Wilson leads the CCC at .570, Sander is fourth (.508), Sitara Byrd is fifth (.505) and Darian Herring ranks seventh (.497). Byrd is also fourth in steals per game (2.3) and Herring is second in blocked shots per game (1.7).
Sander is in the top-five of the conference in multiple categories. She leads in assist/turnover ratio (2.0) and ranks second in assists per game (3.9) and fourth in steals per game (2.3) and 3-point percentage (.398).
Freshman Tatum Brager is third in the Cascade in 3-point percentage (.400) and leads the Warriors in the category.
No. 6 Seed – College of Idaho Yotes (10-18, 10-12)
College of Idaho earned the No. 6 seed in the CCC postseason tournament with its most notable win being a 69-63 victory against Eastern Oregon in December. The Yotes are averaging 61.9 points per game with a .377 field goal percentage heading into the tournament.
No Yotes scored in double-digits against LC State in Caldwell when the Warriors held C of I to just 28.8% shooting from the field. College of Idaho shot 33.3% from the field in Lewiston, led by 15 points from Mia Austin and an 11-rebound, 10-point double-double by Brooke Beresford.
The Yotes rank fourth in the CCC in free throw percentage (.720) and 3-pointers made per game (7.4), but are last in 3-point percentage defense (.338).
Austin leads C of I in scoring average and is 15th in CCC at 12.7 points per game. She is third in the Cascade in 3-pointers made per game (2.8). Beresford is eighth in the conference at 7.2 rebounds per contest.
THE REST OF THE FIELD
No. 22 Southern Oregon earned the regular-season conference title and holds the top seed in the tournament. The Raiders host eighth-seeded Corban. No. 25 Oregon Tech is the second seed and will host seventh-seeded Evergreen State. Fourth-seeded Eastern Oregon hosts fifth-seeded Bushnell. All games will be played on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
THE DETAILS
Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the P1FCU Activity Center. The contest will be streamed on lcwarriors.com/watch and KOZE will produce a radio broadcast. Tickets and streaming packages are on sale now at lcwarriors.com.
The winners of Tuesday’s contests advance to the CCC semifinal. The highest remaining seed will host the lowest remaining seed, and the second-highest will host the second-lowest.
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