LEWISTON, ID – Senior John Lustig put together one of the best games of his career on Friday with personal-bests on both sides of the ball. The Colfax native led (RV) LC State to an 88-78 victory over Warner Pacific (Ore.) with 28 points and 13 rebounds.
“Great way to cap off the week for our guys,” coach Austin Johnson said. “We are running on fumes with it being our fourth game in eight days, but so proud of these guys for how they responded.”
The victory has the LC State record at 19-5 overall and 13-3 in Cascade Conference play.
HOW OIT HAPPENED
Peyton Nordland and Dallon Morgan had the Warriors out to a 5-0 lead early, and triples by Jamare’ Childs and Nordland, as well as a dunk by Lustig, had the advantage at 13-7 at 15:14. A run by WPU evened the game 15-15 two minutes later before a basket by Trevor Manning sparked a 13-0 run to grow the margin back to 28-15 at 9:23.
Lustig scored eight points in the final eight minutes of the half, but a surge by the Knights cut the LC State advantage to 40-39 at the break.
WPU kept the momentum through the first minutes of the second half, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Dyland Skaife put the Warriors back in front for good at 17:44. Brandon Suber and Lustig kept the lead at eight points and a dunk by Manning made it 66-55 at 11:30.
Lustig went on an 8-2 run himself for a 77-61 advantage with 6:44 on the clock, and followed up a 3 by Childs with another basket for the largest lead of the game, 84-66, at 4:10.
Suber scored the final four points for LC State in the contest.
STAT RECAP
Lustig led the contest with 28 points and 13 rebounds. He went 11-for-13 from the field, 6-for-8 from the free throw line and dished out four assists. Skaife and Suber each added 14 points. Skaife went 4-for-6 from 3-point range and Suber was 5-for-6 from the field. Childs and Grayson Hunt each scored nine points.
“We had a ton of guys step up tonight including Trevor, Jamare’ and Dylan,” Johnson added. “Ultimately, John and our other seniors weren’t going to let us lose. John’s ability to finish at the rim off cuts and rebounds was as impressive as it gets. Grayson did a great job logging heavy minutes and defending out of position and Nordland ran the show well with some great finishes and only one turnover against their pressure. We will enjoy this for a short while and then get ready for one more tough road trip against two talented teams.”
LC State shot 61.1% from the field and made eight 3-pointers. The Warriors grabbed 11 more rebounds than WPU (33-22).
Chad Napoleon led the Knights with 26 points and six rebounds.
