GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The Lady Argos played dead even with (20) Lewis-Clark State College at home for almost all but four minutes in the beginning of the third quarter, but those four minutes were too much for UGF to overcome in a 77-68 loss.
The first quarter played to a draw, with LCSC looking to feed the ball into the post and UGF's Erin Legel hitting an early three and few floaters in the lane. The second quarter saw the Lady Argo's leading scorer, Nneka Nnadi, get more involved offensively but starting center Whitney George got into early foul trouble and played just nine first half minutes.
With George mostly on the bench, the Warriors took a slim 30-26 lead into the half but the two teams felt evenly matched. Legel finished the first two quarters with a game leading 10 points, while Nnadi was close behind with nine. Both teams made exactly two of six 3-point attempts and both teams finished the half making about a third of their overall shots.
It was the next few minutes of game play where things took a bad turn for UGF. The Lady Argos score just two points in the first four minutes of the second half while some poor communication defensively led to easy looks for the Warriors. In that span of time LCSC's lead ballooned to 10 and the Lady Argos trailed by at least three for the rest of the game.
UGF did manage to pull within three twice. The first time came just two minutes after the Warriors took the 10 point lead and came by way of seven straight points for Legel. After two of her free throws made it a one score game, LC State went on another 7-0 run to wipe away the UGF comeback bid.
The second time UGF got the deficit down to three was with less than a minute left but the Warriors hit too many of their free throws down the stretch to let their lead slip away.
One of the major reasons the Lady Argos stayed within striking distance in between those two moments was the hot shooting of junior Morgan Grier. The guard scored all 11 of her points in the second half and hit three crucial shots from behind the 3-point arch.
Legel led all scorers in the game with 26 points. She also added four rebounds, three assists and one steal. The next highest UGF scorer was Nnadi who added six points to her stat sheet in the second half for a total of 15.
The loss drops the Lady Argos to 11-6 (2-3) on the season but ends a stretch of three straight ranked opponents to start the spring semester. Their next foe will be Montana Tech at home on Jan. 16 at 5:30 p.m.
