Inconsistent interior play has been one of the wild cards for the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team this season. However, in Friday’s opening-round matchup in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Shootout, the Skyhawks’ big men came to play.
Riley Farris, Alex Semadeni and Brandon Wilson were dominant in the paint against an undersized Colorado Christian squad. The three Skyhawks combined to score 52 points and help FLC overcome a seven-point second-half deficit en route to a 93-85 victory. The Skyhawks (25-5) will move on to play in the RMAC Shootout title game for the second year in a row against the winner between Metro State and Colorado Mines. The win also puts another feather in Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack’s cap, as his back-to-back 25-win seasons are the only two in school history.
Semadeni led Fort Lewis with 21 points and Wilson added a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Rasmus Bach finished with 19 points and Farris pitched in 14 off the bench.
“This was a great program win,” Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Everyone that played contributed in a big way. With two guys down already, we needed the guys to step up. The big story here I think was the game Semadeni and Wilson had.”
Things didn’t look so good for the FLC front line early, as starting center Ross Buchman left with an injury just three minutes into the game and never returned. The Skyhawks trailed by five early on, but FLC used a 14-2 first-half run to grab a seven-point lead.
Colorado Christian, which managed to score only 54 points in its first-round upset win against CSU-Pueblo, came out scorching hot – and guard Dimitri Saliba was the catalyst.
Saliba was unstoppable in the first half and led the Cougars offense with 16 points, as CCU carried a 45-41 lead into halftime.
Saliba didn’t slow down after the break, as his hot shooting continued and the Cougars’ lead quickly jumped to eight. However, Pietrack felt that it was time to see how Saliba would fare with RMAC Player of the Year Joshua Blaylock in his face. It didn’t go so well for Saliba.
Though Blaylock scored just 13 points, he put the clamps on Saliba down the stretch, and FLC began to roll.
“Saliba is a really good player and he was making shots from everywhere,” Pietrack said. “Josh guarded their leading scorer, Brett Brady, and he only had two points. When we put him on Saliba, things changed in a hurry.”
With Blaylock locking down CCU’s sharpshooter, the Skyhawks responded with an 11-0 run to give them a lead that wouldn’t change hands again. Farris had two significant 3-point plays in the run and Semadeni continued to pour in baskets from all over the court.
“It was just a really fun atmosphere,” Semadeni said. “Brandon, Riley and I kind of feed off each other out there, and we wanted to make a difference. It was a great collective effort.”
Though the Cougars stuck around within striking distance, they were never able to get the FLC lead inside five points. Saliba finished with 26 points but had just three in the final 15 minutes.
Fort Lewis will play the winner of the semifinal matchup between Metro State and Colorado Mines.
“Both of those teams are blue-blood RMAC teams,” Pietrack said. “We’ll do our best to prepare for them as quickly as possible in 24 hours and try to repeat.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
