Two dominant powers in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference are set to go toe-to-toe in Durango. It’s blue blood versus blue collar, and the stakes couldn’t be much higher for an early-January game.
Longtime power and two-time NCAA Division II men’s basketball national champion Metro State University-Denver will clash with No. 20 Fort Lewis College at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Whalen Gymnasium in Durango. First place in the conference is on the line, as Fort Lewis will enter with an 11-2 overall record and 7-1 mark in the RMAC, while Metro State will come in 7-6 overall but 6-1 in the RMAC with a 67-60 win on the road against Colorado School of Mines (12-1, 6-1 RMAC) in its back pocket.
“It’s a heavyweight fight,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “There are a few teams in the league that when the schedule comes out each year, you say, ‘When do we play them?’ Metro is one of them. They are a true blue blood in all of Division II basketball and one of the very best over the last 20 years. Any chance we get to play them, we look forward to it out of respect.”
After a tough start against elite South Central Region powers Tarleton State and Angelo State University to open the season, the Roadrunners tested themselves against No. 1 Northwest Missouri State and fell 69-58 Nov. 17 in Missouri. The losing streak hit six games to open the season with losses to Upper Iowa University and Northwest Nazarene University before the Roadrunners picked up their first win. It’s been smooth sailing from there, though, aside from one conference loss, 85-65, at home to Regis.
FLC is fresh off an 89-79 home win against Regis last Saturday and has gone 8-0 at home this season with a pair of overtime wins.
The Skyhawks are tough to beat at home with only one loss – an overtime defeat to Colorado Mines last season – inside Whalen Gymnasium in head coach Bob Pietrack’s third season. Pietrack is 40-1 at home, and the Skyhawks have done it with a program funded well enough for only eight scholarships compared to the 10 allowed in Division II and used by the majority of RMAC teams.
To hold off a Metro State team that beat the Skyhawks 80-65 in Denver in the lone matchup a year ago, the Skyhawks will have to do a better job on Cameron Williams.
Williams, a 6-foot-1 senior from Omaha, Nebraska, is second in the RMAC in scoring at 20.4 points per game. Westminster’s Dayon Goodman (29.3) leads the conference.
“Cameron is the most dynamic guard in our league,” Pietrack said. “He’s so explosive to get to his spots. Our hands are full with him, and he torched us last year with 28 points.”
Cameron isn’t the only Williams FLC needs to prepare for. Allec Williams, a 5-10 sophomore from Albany, Georgia, is a stat-sheet stuffer. He has averaged 11 points on 51.9 percent shooting this year. He’s the conference’s third-best free-throw shooter at 90.6 percent, and he’s also top 10 in the RMAC in steals per game.
“Allec is very fast, shifts gears very well and a tough guard for any team in our league,” Pietrack said.
Peter Møller, a senior guard from Denmark, leads the Roadrunners in minutes per game and has averaged 12.8 points. Bounama Keita, a 6-10 center from Senegal, is also a gritty rebounder who averages more than eight boards per game.
“The biggest matchup is rebounding,” Pietrack said. “Last year, they beat us 48-30 and controlled the game via rebounding. We must do a better job of getting loose balls, eliminating second-chance opportunities. Rebounding is the No. 1 most important thing.”
FLC has scored an RMAC-leading 89.4 points per game this season while it has allowed only 76.2. Metro State relies on its defense that has only allowed 71.5 points per game while it has scored a matching 71.5 per game.
FLC has the top defense in the RMAC in terms of field-goal percentage against, as it has held teams to 41.4 percent shooting. Offensively, FLC has made nearly 50 percent of its shots. The Skyhawks’ stingy defense stretches behind the 3-point line, where it has held teams to an RMAC-best 30.2 percent shooting. FLC also is tops in the conference with an average of 40.5 rebounds per game.
“Defensively, it’s been a roller coaster,” Pietrack said. “It started good, then we had a stretch of not a lot of practice and the numbers dropped. Now, with more practice to build off and coming off the Regis game, we want to keep teams in the low 70s.”
FLC has five players averaging double-digit scoring per game, but nobody is in the top 10 in the conference. Senior forward Rasmus Bach leads the team at 14.9 points per game. He’s made 90.2 percent of his free throws and is fifth in the RMAC with 4.6 assists per game. Daniel Hernandez has added 13.8 points per contest, Marquel Beasley has been an efficient force with 13.3 points on 54.5 percent shooting to go with 7.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. DJ Miles has averaged 12.5 points per game, and Riley Farris has come through with 10.7 points per game.
Center Brandon Wilson has averaged a team-high 8.1 rebounds per game and has developed his offense to be a dual threat down low.
FLC’s Miles, Mike Ranson, Alex Semadeni and Wilson are all Colorado natives who never received a call from Metro State along their journey from high school to college.
They’ve all taken different paths to the Skyhawks and aim to beat the state’s predominant Division II program that only features two Colorado players on the roster.
“It’s a huge game,” Wilson said. “Metro is one of the top teams in the league, and we lost there last year. It’s a little personal to get them at home this year. On a personal side, they didn’t recruit me at all, so there’s a chip on my shoulder for that one.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
