LEWISTON, Idaho – Hope International got off to a hot start, but did not sustain the momentum in a 74-65 defeat to host Lewis-Clark State during the NAIA Women's Basketball Tournament First Round on Friday at the P1FCU Activity Center.
The 13th-seeded Royals ended their season at 24-5 overall, the win total tying for the second-most in program history.
Junior Nicole Chuang hit seven three-pointers for a team-high 21 points. Eighteen of those points came in the first period as the Royals built a 22-16 lead. She shot 6-for-8 in the first quarter, but struggled to 1-of-10 shooting the remainder of the game.
Aliyah Gonzalez and Angelina De Leon added 11 points apiece, and Trasara Alexander had 10 in just five minutes of action.
Senior Amira Austin concluded her Royals career with six points and a team-best 11 rebounds.
The Royals committed 21 turnovers, leading to 21 Warrior points. HIU forced Lewis-Clark State into 20 miscues and converted those into 16 points.
Chuang scored 12 straight points to help forge a 20-14 lead. Austin hit a layup to give HIU its biggest lead at 22-14. Madalyn Green ended the first period with a layup to cut the Warrior deficit to six.
The two teams headed into halftime tied at 34-34.
The third period was crucial as LCSC shot 60.0 (9 of 15) percent overall, including 4 of 7 from distance. In contrast, the Royals were just 4 of 14 from the field and missed on all five three-point attempts.
HIU's last lead was 40-37 following a Dre Javier layup a minute into the third period. Sitara Byrd gave the Warriors the lead for good as her layup made the score 42-40. HIU trailed by 10 points at 56-46 as LCSC embarked on a 19-6 run and limited the Royals to two field goals over the final 8:32.
Chuang knocked down a triple with 6:40 left in the game to cut HIU's deficit to 58-51. HIU got within six points when DeLeon's layup whittled the deficit to 59-53 at the 4:03 mark.
But the Warriors scored seven straight points to widen their advantage to 13, getting a huge three from Kendall Wallace.
The Royals made one last push as Alexander scored eight straight points and got her team as close as five points at 70-65, hitting a triple with 45 seconds on the clock.
HIU missed its last three shots as the Warriors held off the visitors at the foul line.
No. 4 seed LCSC improved to 24-8 overall, and await an NAIA Tournament Second Round matchup against Montana Tech on Saturday.
