ASHLAND, Ore. – The Warriors were nearly perfect at the free throw line in a contest where each player scored and grabbed a rebound to help LC State end the regular season with an 87-76 victory over Southern Oregon. Warrior Men’s Basketball shot 51.5% from the field and only turned the ball over six times to send the team into the Cascade Conference tournament with momentum.
LC State will be the No. 2 seed in the Cascade Conference Championship, presented by U.S. Bank, and will host the quarterfinal on Wednesday.
“Proud of our guys. Hard to put into words what they did tonight on the second night of a tough back-to-back,” Head Coach Austin Johnson said. “We are the only CCC team to sweep this trip and we did it on toughness and togetherness. We weathered an unbelievable storm from 3 and actually had some great stretches defensively despite giving up so many points. Every guy had an impact on the game. I thought Alton and AP (Peoples Jr.) once again were a huge force inside. JB (Bradley) showed why he’s one of the best players in the league. Davian, Sam and John helped us stay steady. We also got another big performance off the bench from Q (Raynor) and Gorden. Proud of these guys but we know we have even more challenges ahead. We’ll have to rest up and recover for Wednesday.”
The Warriors finish regular season with a 21-7 record overall and 19-3 in CCC play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
SOU hit seven 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the contest to take a 21-16 lead. Jaedon Bradley scored six points in the span while Davian Brown and Alton Hamilton each tallied four to keep the score close.
Bradley hit LC State’s first 3 of the contest midway through the half and Anthony Peoples Jr. drained two free throws to make it a 29-23 deficit at 9:28. The Warriors went on an eight-point stretch to pull within one with contributions from Gorden Boykins, Stockton, Bradley and Brown. A layup by Stockton and 3 by Brown put LC in front 36-34 at the 4:44 mark.
LC continued to maintain the advantage with buckets from Stockton and Hamilton. SOU rallied within one before a layup by Boykins and triple by Bradley had the lead at 47-41 with under a minute to go in the half. The Raiders struck once more and LC led 47-43 at the break. The Warriors took advantage of their time at the free throw line with a perfect 14-for-14 mark in the first half.
Bradley and Hamilton combined for 10 points in the first four three minutes of the second half and a triple by Stockton had the lead at 64-51 by 16:32.
A layup by Hamilton gave LC a 17-point lead at 12:37, 72-55, but the Warriors went through a scoring drought of five minutes until Boykins dropped in a reverse layup at 7:16 to keep the double-digit lead at 74-63.
Brown continued his strong night with free throws at the 5:16 mark for an 80-68 advantage and foul shots by Peoples Jr. and Boykins put the game away.
Brown led all scorers with 21 points including a 10-for-10 performance from the free throw line. The Warriors went 26-for-27 (.963) from the foul line for the seventh-best mark in program history.
Bradley scored 19 points, Hamilton added 31 and Stockton added 10. Hamilton led the defense with seven rebounds, Stockton had six assists and Brown grabbed three steals.
UP NEXT
The LC State men are the No. 2 seed in the CCC tournament and will host seventh-seeded Eastern Oregon on Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the P1FCU Activity Center. General admission tickets to Tuesday’s CCC quarterfinal are on sale now at lcwarriors.com/tickets.
Stay up to date with all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com and on social media @LCWarriors.
