Warrior men’s season comes to a close

It will be a long, bitter flight home for the Lewis-Clark State men’s basketball team from Georgetown, Ky.

The seventh-seeded Warriors were upset by the tenth-seeded Saint Francis Cougars 81-73 on Friday in the first round of the NAIA Tournament.

The loss ends Lewis-Clark State’s season at 24-8 overall. This was the sixth season in seven years under coach Austin Johnson that the team earned a bid to the national tournament. It was Lewis-Clark State’s 17th overall appearance in the national event.

Even though it ended with a loss, the 2024-25 season is tied for sixth-most wins in school history.

Here’s how the game went down:

Warrior woes

The Lewis-Clark State offense struggled throughout the much of the game.

Alton Hamilton — the Cascade Conference Player of the Year — was the only player in the conference to average a double-double this season.

He managed to record another double-double against Saint Francis, scoring 16 points and hauling in 11 rebounds. However, his offense at times was limited.

Lewis-Clark State coach Austin Johnson said the struggles were a result of the Cougars clogging the paint as much as they could.

“Well, they were smart, they sagged off our guys who couldn’t shoot and plugged up the paint, which took away driving lanes for our drivers. Put Alton in some situations where they were able to double-team them and collapse on him,” Johnson said. “Our shooters didn’t make shots, which put Alton playing in a crowd and impacted his aggressiveness. That was kind of the moral of the story on our offensive end.”

It was not all negative for Lewis-Clark State. Kasen Carpenter led the team in scoring with 17 points shooting 5-of-10 from the field. Each field goal he made was a 3-pointer.

John Lustig, a Colfax native and Cascade Conference honorable mention honoree, scored 11 points on 50% shooting, grabbed four rebounds and had three assists in the game.

MaCarhy Morris was the only other Warrior to score more than six points. The first-team All-CCC guard scored 11 on 5-of-13 shooting, came down with two rebounds and had two assists.

The Warriors shot 40% from the field and 28.6% from 3, making only eight of their 28 attempts from long range. Accuracy was a struggle for LC State.

Johnson said it was not a surprise that they did not shoot well as they struggled with that during the season, but said that they also were unable to finish shots at the rim — normally a strength of the team. He said if the three top shooters on the team — Morris, Taden King and Dylan Skaife — made just one more of their attempts, that it would have given the team a much better chance at winning.

Cougars bring the heat

Saint Francis’ Isaiah Malone caused havoc for the Warriors’ defense. He scored 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting and grabbed nine boards.

Luke Almodovar was second on the team in scoring with 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting, made two 3-pointers, totaled six rebounds and accounted for two assists.

During the first half, Saint Francis went on a 22-4 run to give it a 51-36 lead over the Warriors at halftime.

Johnson said that they were struggling to execute defensively because those two players, Malone and Almodovar, stood out so much.

“It’s hard to execute a game plan against guys who are really freaking good, and 32 (Malone) and 10 (Almodovar) are really, really good. ... They were bigger than us at almost every position,” Johnson said. “The guards played well and had some smart passes to (Malone) inside.

“They are a really good offensive team, we knew that — they average about 80 points a game. They scored 81 tonight and they have two players who are All-American level players in (Malone and Almodovar).”

Looking forward for LCSC

Although this is the end of the season for Lewis-Clark State, Johnson emphasized that the team maximized its ability.

He said that the Warriors had their worst defensive half of the season during the first half. Aside from this game, the team defended well all year.

The stats back that up: The Warriors were second in the Cascade Conference in scoring defense and second in field-goal percentage defense.

Johnson said that this team was resilient during this game and throughout the season.

In the second half, LC State went on a 15-2 run to cut the lead to four points before the Cougars pulled away down the stretch.

Johnson said the big run was a testament to the team’s resilience. He also said that he was very proud of the team and was proud to be the Warriors’ coach.

“It sucks to lose. Sucks to play bad, but you know, 40 minutes doesn’t take away from what this group has done for the past five months, and the memories they’ve made on and off the court and what they did for our school and our program,” Johnson said. “Pretty bitter after the game, but here in a few days or a few weeks you can probably decompress.

“This group accomplished a ton. Went 24-8, that’s pretty hard to do. This group again, just really maximized who they are and I’m very appreciative they let me coach them.”

LEWIS-CLARK STATE (24-8)

Hamilton 6-13 4-5 16, Morris 5-13 0-0 11, Lustig 4-8 3-3 11, King 1-4 2-2 5, Skaife 1-8 0-0 3, Carpenter 5-10 2-2 17, Boykins 3-6 0-0 6, Salguero 0-1 2-2 2, Smith 1-2 0-0 0, Knowles 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-65 13-14 73.

SAINT FRANCIS (18-12)

Malone 11-19 2-3 24, Almodovar 6-14 5-6 19, Reidy 7-9 1-3 15, Northern 4-5 0-0 11, Burke 2-4 0-0 4, Fry 3-3 0-0 6, Rogers 1-2 0-1 0, Gowdy 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 34-58 8-13 81.

Halftime — Saint Francis 51-36. 3-point Goals — Lewis-Clark State 8-28 (Carpenter 5-9, Morris 1-6, King 1-4, Skaife 1-7, Boykins 0-2), Saint Francis 5-14 (Northern 3-4, Almodovar 2-3, Malone 0-4, Burke 0-1, Gowdy 0-2). Fouled Out — Reidy. Rebounds — Lewis-Clark State 26 (Hamilton 11), Saint Francis 34 (Malone 9). Assists — Lewis-Clark State 11 (Lustig 3), Saint Francis 12 (Burke 4). Total Fouls — Lewis-Clark State 17, Saint Francis 19.

Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @TrevorJunt.