Fort Lewis College and Regis gave fans in Durango a look at what an NCAA Division II tournament game is like a few months early Saturday night.
The No. 22 FLC Skyhawks men’s basketball team buckled down defensively on two of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s top players in Regis’ Jarrett Brodbeck and Dexter Sienko. FLC senior center Brandon Wilson had perhaps the best game of his Skyhawks career, and FLC secured an 89-79 win against the well-rested Rangers.
“I thought our guys were super motivated,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “We wanted to guard better, and I thought we did a really good job on Brodbeck and Sienko. Regis is a very hard team to guard and had guys make some shots. They’re a good team, and that was an NCAA level game.”
The Skyhawks (11-2, 7-1 RMAC) took a 50-44 lead into halftime in what was a back-and-forth first half. The play of Wilson was the difference in the half, as he scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds while he held Sienko to 11 points and one rebound. Wilson finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Sienko had 17 points but only three rebounds.
“Last year, I played him twice and felt like he got the best of me in both those matchups,” Wilson said of Sienko. “I really focused on taking his right hand away because when he gets that right hand, he’s one of the top players in the league. He still scored 17, but we definitely limited his shot selection today.”
FLC’s lead was cut to 52-49 with 18 minutes to play when Brodbeck hit a 3, but Brodbeck was held to 3-of-10 shooting from behind the 3-point line. He entered the game with the most 3s made of any player in the RMAC. He shot 6-of-16 for the game and finished with 15 points. Senior guard Kane Martinez started the game for FLC for his 3-point defense against Brodbeck, and it paid off big as the typically hot shooter never found a rhythm.
“He doesn’t play as many minutes as he’d like to because we’re so deep and have so many guys, but his defense meant a lot so that Brodbeck didn’t have a big start,” Wilson said of Martinez.
FLC pulled away behind a Marquel Beasley put-back layup on a Martinez missed free throw that gave FLC three points on one trip down the floor. After Brodbeck shot an air ball for the second of three times in the game, Daniel Hernandez went in for a strong layup, and an Alex Semadeni rebound and putback layup the next time down the floor gave Fort Lewis a 10-point lead. That was extended to 12 points with 14:19 to play on a Wilson layup off a Beasley steal, and the Skyhawks never looked back.
Pietrack leaned on his seniors the final 10 minutes of the game, and they didn’t let him down.
“I’m immensely proud of our team for playing back-to-back nights and having that type of energy,” Pietrack said. “I felt it was our best collective game of the year.”
Semadeni helped spark that energy the entire second half for Fort Lewis. The hustle plays he made changed the game, and he brought the crowd and FLC bench to life with his play and two big roars he let out after drawing offensive fouls against Regis. “It’s crazy the things he does on the court,” FLC senior DJ Miles said of Semadeni. “It’s the unappreciated things like hustling, getting rebounds, boxing out. He brings the heart.”
Semadeni finished with six points, three blocked shots and two rebounds. FLC had five players in double-figure scoring. Senior forward Rasmus Bach led the way with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting. He added seven rebounds. Miles finished with 15 points, Beasley had 14 points and nine rebounds to go with three big steals, one of which went for a highlight reel one-hand dunk early in the first half that energized the arena. Hernandez finished with 10 points and five assists.
Ty McGee hit big shots for Regis in the first half and finished with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Christian Little added 14 points and seven rebounds.
“We were solid on defense,” Beasley said. “We were all doing it for the team. Regis has tough guys who shoot it well, but we played all-around solid defense on them.”
FLC was fueled by a crowd of more than 1,000, even without students on campus during winter break.
“The town’s crowd tonight was outstanding,” Pietrack said. “To have 1,000 people here considering its break and we had no students, it was just outstanding and we can’t thank the community enough for their support.”
FLC will need that support again at 7:30 p.m. Friday when perennial powerhouse Metro State University-Denver comes to town with first place in the RMAC on the line.
“The bigger games are why we play,” Miles said. “As basketball players, we want to play the best teams and the best guys you can.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
