Box Score Colorado College got off to a slow start and never fully recovered as the Tigers dropped an 81-53 decision against Lewis & Clark College at the Bon Appetit/Northwest Conference Tip-Off Classic.
 
CC missed its first four shots from the floor and committed four turnovers as the red-hot Pioneers raced to a 17-4 lead.
 
Freshman forward Luke Winfield buried a pair of three pointers to pull to the Tigers to within 10 points at 17-7 and 22-12. Then, after falling behind by 16 points with 8:51 remaining in the first half, CC used a 9-2 run to trim its deficit to nine points on sophomore forward Chris Lesnansky's jumper with 3:54 to play.
 
That, however, was as close as Colorado College would get.
 
Ross Erickson scored nine of his game-high 20 points during the final 3:49 as L&C extended its lead to 20 at the break. The Pioneers made 19 of 30 shots from the floor during the first half, including nine of 13 from behind the arc.
 
Four points from Lesnansky pulled the Tigers to within 15 points with a little more than 18 minutes to play, but CC went nearly eight minutes without a point and the Pioneers stretched their advantage to 57-34 before a layup by senior forward Ian Rewoldt with 11:18 to play.
 
Colorado College made only seven of 22 field-goal attempts during the second half and shot just 34.8-percent for the game.
 
Junior guard Jake Tramutolo went 3-for-6 from three-point range and finished with 11 points, sharing the team lead with Lesnansky.
 
Lewis & Clark (2-0) got 15 points from Serg Ovchinnikov and 13 from Connor Freeberg.  
 
Colorado College (0-2) returns home to play its first game in the newly renovated Reid Arena against Augsburg College on Friday night in the opening game of the 2012 Thanksgiving Classic.