SALEM, Ore. – LC State Women’s Basketball had to battle back against the Corban Warriors on Saturday before earning a 71-59 victory. The 10th-ranked LC State Warriors saw big nights from Callie Stevens, Ellie Sander and Payton Hymas to improve to 4-0 in Cascade Conference play.
With the victory, LC State is now 9-1 overall.
“It was definitely a hard-fought win,” Head Coach Brian Orr said. “Credit Corban, they played really hard and when you’re a top-10 team that’s what we need to expect. We know we are going to get everyone’s best effort. After getting off to a slow start, we got on a roll with about five minutes to go in the first quarter and we played really well for the rest of the half.”
The LC Warriors trailed 19-18 at the end of the opening quarter after Corban jumped out to a 9-3 lead. Sara Muehlhausen kept LC within four with a layup at 6:53 but another surge by the hosting Warriors had LC trailing by 10, 15-5, by 5:10. Stevens sparked an 11-point rally to give LC a momentary lead. Muehlhausen and Sander contributed to the run to make it 16-15 LC State with 2:15 to play. Corban scored the final bucket of the period to hold the one-point edge.
Hymas stepped up in a big way in the second quarter where she scored all 12 of her points. The freshman went 5-for-7 from the field in the 10-minute frame. A layup by Sitara Byrd started a run of six LC points to give the visiting Warriors a 25-19 advantage three minutes in. Stevens drained a 3 and Maddie Holm converted two foul shots to push the lead to 30-22 at 5:11, and three straight tallies by Sander, Stevens and Hymas made it 36-24 at 2:05.
Hymas scored the final three baskets of the half, including a triple, to send LC State into the break with a 43-29 lead.
Adyson Clabby added a basket in the first 20 seconds of the second half, but Corban rallied to pull within seven, 46-39, by 4:13. Back-to-back buckets by Hannah Broyles and Sander pushed the margin back to double-digits, 50-39, at 2:58 and LC led 53-45 at the end of the third.
Nine points by Stevens in the fourth quarter helped secure the victory for LC State. Sander got the momentum going with a basket on a fastbreak before Stevens drained a 3 to make it 58-45 at 8:44. Corban surged once again to cut the LC lead to three, 58-55, with 5:43 to play, but a scoring streak by Lindsey Wilson, Stevens, Sander and Broyles gave the LC Warriors nine straight points and a 67-55 advantage with a minute to go.
Stevens made four free throws to end the contest with LC ahead 71-59. She went 5-for-6 from the line for the night.
Stevens led all scorers with 20 points. Sander had a big night with 15 points, nine rebounds and a career-best seven steals. Hymas finished with 12 points, and Muehlhausen collected a team-best nine rebounds and two blocks.
The Warrior women had 32 points off the bench and scored 33 points of off turnovers. LC tallied 16 steals and forced 27 turnovers.
“Our bench played a huge part tonight, especially in the first half,” Orr added. “Ellie came in and got a couple of big steals, and Payton was instant offense. She did a great job of getting to the rim. But it really was our defensive intensity that made the difference. We struggled making baskets in the second half but almost all of Ellie and Maddie’s steals ended with us scoring transition layups. Callie hit a couple of big 3s in the fourth and I thought we did a good job of executing down the stretch to close it out. Definitely a good road win.”
