DILLON — Both the men and women's basketball teams from Lewis and Clark State came into Thursday night's matchup with the Bulldogs of Montana Western ranked 13th in the nation. Both Bulldog squads were looking for upsets on their home court.
The women tipped off first and early on, a defensive battle raged for both squads. The Warriors caught fire mid-way through the second quarter giving them a 31-23 lead heading into halftime. Montana Western only shot 32 percent from the field and 33 percent from three point land in that opening half.
More of the same continued in the third quarter as LC State opened up it's largest lead of the game when they went up 13 points mid-way through the third quarter. But the 4th quarter was all Montana Western. Redshirt-freshman Jenni Weber caught fire and delivered three huge three pointers to tie the game at 43 all.
With less than two minutes to play junior Paige Holmes buried a trey that put the Bulldogs up 52-49 which doubled as their first lead of the entire game. Montana Western would hold on to win 54-50 to complete the upset.
The men's teams hit the court after and much like the women's game before LC State jumped out to an early lead. The Warriors went 6 of 14 from three point territory and hit two big threes late in the first half to give them a 43-33 lead over Montana Western. The Bulldogs went 11-27 from the field and 3-10 from three in the opening half.
The second half was all Lewis and Clark as they outscored Western 48-30 to cruise to a 91-63 win behind Trystan Bradley's 20 points. Cedric Boone led all Bulldog scorers with 17.
Both Bulldogs squad will return home Saturday for the first Digger-Dawg rivalry game of the season when they host Montana Tech. The women tip off at 5:30 p.m. and the men will follow right after at 7:30 p.m.
