UM-Western Bulldogs lose two on the road

The Bulldogs lost 83-91 to Westminster College in a Frontier Conference game from Salt Lake City. The loss drops the Bulldogs to 0-5 in league play and 6-12 overall.

Western got off to a slow start and fell behind Westminster 16-2 after the game's first nine minutes. Over the next six minutes, the Bulldogs outscored Westminster 22-9 to cut the lead to one, 25-24 but that was as close as they would get. The Griffins led 39-31 at the half.

In the second half, Westminster outscored the Bulldogs 54-50. Tyler Palmer led Western with 23 points followed by Kelen Ori with 11.

The Bulldogs host the University of Great Falls on Friday, Jan. 26 and MSU-Northern on Saturday, Jan. 27.

Last Thursday night, The Lewis-Clark State College men's basketball team used a 21-3 second-half run to remain undefeated in Frontier Conference play with an 82-49 win over the University of Montana-Western at the LCSC Activity Center.

The win was the ninth straight for the Warriors, ranked No. 23 in the NAIA. LCSC is now 15-4 overall and 4-0 in conference play, while the Bulldogs fall to 6-11 and 0-4.

LCSC again used a staunch defensive effort to frustrate the Bulldogs. LCSC is ranked third in the NAIA in scoring defense and held the Bulldogs to their lowest output of the season by 16 points by using man defense, which didn't give Montana-Western many open looks at the basket.

The Bulldogs didn't help themselves either, hitting only 15-of-59 shots from the field, 25.4 percent. From the 3-point line, the Bulldogs were just 6-of-26 from the field, 23.1 percent. That made for a long night for Western, especially considering LCSC was 6-of-8 from the 3-point line in the second half alone. LCSC finished the game 30-of-56 from the field, 53.6 percent, and was 9-of-19 at the 3-point-line.

Mike Gordy, LCSC's 6-foot-7 post, took advantage of his size to dominate inside with a game-high 28 points and nine rebounds. Guard Teran Lee added 23 points and seven rebounds. Lee did most of his damage from the outside by going 5-of-6 at the 3-point line. Zachary Pitts added nine points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Gus McDonald had 14 points to pace Western, while fellow guard Tyler Palmer added 13, but the two combined went 8-of-26 from the field. Aaron Sims added 10 points.

The game did feature one unusual moment when Western guard Layne Glaus picked up four fouls in the first 47 seconds of the ballgame. He managed, however, to play another 11 minutes in the game without fouling-out.