Fort Lewis College managed only two points in the first 3 minutes, 30 seconds of action Friday night.
Trailing 6-2, Alex Semadeni drew a charge, and that immediately sparked the sluggish Skyhawks, who traveled more than 11 hours to Chadron, Nebraska, to open the second half of the season after the holiday break.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Joshua Blaylock and Will Morse gave FLC an 8-6 lead, and the Skyhawks never looked back in a 84-59 victory that was even more lopsided than the final score suggested.
“Coming off break, this was a nice win,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “We were a bit sluggish early, but that’s because we hadn’t played. Once we got our feet underneath us, it was pretty smooth sailing.”
FLC (12-1, 7-0 RMAC) led by as many as 37 points at 68-31 and was able to rest starters before a key matchup Saturday night against a well-rested Regis (9-3, 3-3 RMAC) squad that didn’t play Friday.
Daniel Hernandez was red-hot for the Skyhawks, as he scored 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting that included a 4-of-5 performance from 3-point land. Those bench points were big for FLC in the first half, when Hernandez had 11 of his points.
Rasmus Bach continued his All-RMAC caliber play with 18 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Bach was highly efficient, shooting 8-of-11 from the field.
That efficiency was seen up and down the FLC lineup, as the Skyhawks shot 51.7 percent from the field and 54.2 percent from behind the 3-point line. On the other end, FLC held Chadron State to 30.1 percent shooting from the field and 5-of-24 from 3.
“We’ve been preaching to our guys to guard a little bit better,” Pietrack said.
“Some of that is we can guard better, but some of it has been we’re getting everyone’s best shot every night.”
Riley Farris continued his strong play this season with 12 points and five rebounds as he continues to recover from a knee injury. Blaylock added nine points and three assists and only had to play 25 minutes.
The Skyhawks got everyone involved, as Blaylock’s 25 minutes led the team.
Brandon Wilson had eight rebounds to go along with six points, and Brandon Book scored eight off the bench in eight minutes of action.
Chadron State (1-10, 1-6 RMAC) was led by Micahel Johnson’s 15 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
“It’s always good for team morale to get a lot of guys in who don’t play a lot,” Pietrack said.
“Book and Hernandez really helped, and Kane Martinez did a nice job in there. It was also good to get Farris some extended minutes because he hasn’t played a lot while getting healthier.”
FLC will travel another five hours to get to Denver to play Regis at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Skyhawks will look to continue a 12-game winning streak and a 22-game winning streak against RMAC opponents dating back to last season.
“This trip is all about (Saturday night) against a really good team in Regis,” Pietrack said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
