Fort Lewis College ran into a red-hot team at the wrong time Friday.
The FLC Skyhawks’ men’s basketball team couldn’t slow down the scorching shooting of the CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves in a key Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference showdown. The ThunderWolves (16-7, 12-5 RMAC) made 12-of-22 3-point attempts in a 83-59 win inside FLC’s Whalen Gymnasium.
“I don’t want to do anything but give credit. Pueblo played great,” FLC head coach Bob Hofman said. “To be honest, I was truly embarrassed by our effort. I don’t like the word much, but we’ve built up a culture that we didn’t live up to. The effort was truly unacceptable, and once again the only one to blame is me.”
FLC star senior center Alex Herrera of Ignacio tried to keep the Skyhawks (17-6, 12-5 RMAC) in the game early, scoring 18 of his game-high 27 points in the first half. FLC trailed 37-36 at the halftime break, but the ThunderWolves really poured it on in the second half, outscoring FLC 46-23 in the final 20 minutes.
“We were very frustrated from the word ‘go,’ and you can’t play basketball frustrated,” Hofman said. “The ironic thing is the theme of the pregame speech was energy, bringing energy. Needless to say the speech didn’t go over very well.”
Will Newman came off the bench to lead the ThunderWolves with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Tyrone Marshall added 14 points, Jed Knafelc scored 13, and Steven Radakovic added 12.
CSU-Pueblo outrebounded FLC 38-31 and hauled in 11 offensive rebounds. That led to nine second-chance points. FLC also turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 24 ThunderWolves’ points.
“We were chippie with the referees, and I thought our body language in general was not good,” Hofman said. “It wasn’t how we play.”
FLC jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and CSU-Pueblo head coach Ralph Turner brought in five reserves with his team trailing 7-3 minutes into the game. It worked, as the ThunderWolves quickly built a lead and set a different tone for the rest of the game.
“I thought those guys really gave us a great lift,” Turner said of his bench. “But they’ve done that a number of games. We’re trying to play 10 guys at least 10 minutes a game. I thought they really played well the whole game.”
Herrera fouled out with under 3 minutes to play in the game on a technical. He still played 34 minutes, as the captain was prepared to go down with the ship.
FLC didn’t get much contribution behind Herrera. Cade Kloster finished with 14 points, with nine coming from the free-throw line. Austin Haldorson added seven points. Hofman singled out Haldorson as a player that did give effort, along with Herrera.
Herrera recorded his 17th double-double of the season with 10 rebounds to go with his 27 points, but he went 5-of-12 from the free-throw line.
FLC has a tough turnaround game against No. 15 UC-Colorado Springs, which was upset at Adams State on Friday.
“We pride ourselves on getting better in February. Hopefully we do that starting (Saturday night),” Hofman said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
