Down 17 points without their starting point guard and facing not only elimination from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Shootout tournament but possible elimination from the NCAA regional tournament, the Skyhawks turned to their savior.
Joshua Blaylock buried a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. He came out of the locker room with a look of pure focus and desire on his face. And he played like the true superstar he has become with 33 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals to lead the No. 21 Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team past a feisty University of Colorado-Colorado Springs team for a 92-85 victory in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
“I wanted it so bad, man,” Blaylock said. “I did not want to stop, go out like that. I’m a senior. Wanted to keep going. Get to Colorado Mines and get a chance. I wanted it bad.”
With the win, FLC advanced to the RMAC Shootout semifinals, which will be hosted by regular season champion Colorado Mines. FLC will face Colorado Christian on Friday, after Christian beat CSU-Pueblo 54-52 on Tuesday in Pueblo. Colorado Mines will face Metro State in the semifinals, with the two winners set to collide Saturday for the championship.
Even bigger, Tuesday’s win almost guarantees FLC a place in the NCAA South Central Region tournament. The final regional rankings of the year will be released Wednesday, and FLC should be in the top five or six. The top eight teams qualify for the national tournament.
“I think we’re in now,” said FLC head coach Bob Pietrack, who will lead the Skyhawks to the national tournament for the second time in his two years as head coach. “We’re 24-5, and I wouldn’t say it unless I really believed it. We have 20 Division II wins. I think we’re going to Golden thinking we’re in the national tournament. We’ve earned it, flat out.”
Blaylock, who earlier Tuesday was named the RMAC Player of the Year, lived up to the billing. He hit 4-of-6 3-point attempts, made all five of his free throws and willed his team back from a 14-point halftime deficit largely without the services of All-RMAC first teamer Rasmus Bach, who battled foul trouble all night and fouled out late in the second half. Blaylock hit passes to Daniel Hernandez and Alex Semadeni, who both hit the two biggest shots of the night. Hernandez hit a cross-over 3-pointer to tie the game at 81 late, and Semadeni hit the final dagger off a beautiful assist from Blaylock to put FLC up 87-82.
“I trust them guys, even if they go 0-for-20,” Blaylock said. “I know they’re gonna knock down the shot. They hit big shots every game down the stretch.”
FLC got obliterated in rebounding, especially in the first half when the Mountain Lions had nine offensive rebounds to only 12 total FLC rebounds. UCCS (12-6) won the rebounding battle 39-30 and scored 15 second-chance points, including 12 in the first half.
Blend Avdili led UCCS with 14 points. TreShawn Wilford had 13 points and nine rebounds, and Ian MacDonald and Dalton Walker each scored 12 in the loss.
Pietrack was livid with his team much of the first half and said he has never been more mad in his life than in the locker room at halftime, when he let his team hear just how frustrated he was.
Ross Buchman and Brandon Wilson answered their coach’s call in the second half and brought intensity to the rebounding department, as did Semadeni, who had a team-high six rebounds. He brought the energy to the game FLC desperately needed, and a star was born Tuesday in the sophomore from Fort Collins. Semadeni finished with 13 points and played the final 19 minutes of the game.
“When Ras went out, I knew somebody had to step up,” he said. “I tried to be aggressive from the tip.”
After shooting 58.3 percent in the first half, UCCS cooled down in the second and shot only 35.7 percent. The referees called 30 fouls in the second half, and much of the game was played from the free-throw line. The Mountain Lions shot 18-of-27 from the line, while FLC went 23-of-28.
It was a total-program win for FLC, which was without starting point guard Will Morse for a third consecutive game. Hernandez has filled into that role and hit big shots, but the team has clearly missed the quarterback of the offensive sets.
Players such as Brandon Book stepped in and played big minutes, and Book finished with five points in 18 minutes.
“Ultimate program win,” Pietrack said. “We’re down our starting point guard, Rasmus Bach, a first-team all-league player, is a shell of himself. Guys like Book, great minutes. Unbelievable.”
It was once again the play of Blaylock that was hard to believe, though. The senior guard from Lancaster, California, put the team on his shoulders and made every big play to lead the comeback. It was his final game in Whalen Gymnasium, where he went 30-1 in his two-year career after transferring from Otero Junior College.
“I’ve been here 17 years, didn’t see anything pre-2000s,” Pietrack said. “We’ve had a lot of great players. I can name them all. It’s hard to judge one better than the other. Different eras. But, man, Josh is so good. He wasn’t going to let us lose tonight. He went 30-1 in Don Whalen Gymnasium. I don’t know if people realize just how special what they just witnessed the last two years by one player is. He’s the conference player of the year. He’s the best player in the region. I wouldn’t trade him for no one in Division II, period, end of story.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
