The Fort Lewis men’s and women’s basketball programs are currently going in opposite directions.
The men’s squad continues to roll and sit atop the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after dominating CSU Pueblo 86-68 on the road for its eighth straight win Friday night.
On the other hand, the women’s team continues to struggle on the scoring end, falling 73-65 at CSU Pueblo. The women, who are fighting to make the RMAC tournament, have lost seven of their last 10 games.
The Skyhawks men improved to 20-2 overall and 15-1 in the RMAC after shooting 50% from the field, 43% from 3-point range and 58% from the free-throw line. CSU Pueblo fell to 9-12 overall and 5-10 in the RMAC after shooting 36% from the field and 29% from downtown.
“I'm just thankful to get a road win in this league. It's very difficult,” Fort Lewis men’s coach Bob Pietrack said. “We were prepared, played hard. The game was never in jeopardy. I wasn’t overly happy with our last eight minutes but overall, anytime you go on the road and you win big and convincingly, you're doing a lot of things right.”
Pietrack didn’t think his team guarded as well as they could’ve in the last eight minutes. The Skyhawks led 79-44 with 6:53 left in the second half after they led 45-25 at halftime. Fort Lewis had a double-digit lead for the last 28 minutes of the game.
Senior guard Malik Whitaker led the Skyhawks with 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the field, 1 of 2 from 3-point range and 3 of 4 from the charity stripe along with nine rebounds.
Junior guard Obi Agbim and redshirt sophomore guard Tristan Hurdle each had 12 points. Junior guard Jhei-R Jones and senior guard Junior Garbrah each had 10 points as well.
The Fort Lewis women fell to 11-11 overall and 8-8 in the RMAC after shooting 32% from the field, 18% from 3-point range and 82% from the free-throw line.
“I feel really positive about how we played and how we were in the game,” Fort Lewis women’s associate head coach Kylie Lorenzen said. “Pueblo is a really tough team and they’re a tough matchup. They capitalized on some high-level actions and got some offensive rebounds.”
Sophomore guard Lanae Billy led the Skyhawks with 20 points after she shot 6 of 18 from the field, 4 of 11 from the 3-point line and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line. Junior guard Sadie Misner had a season-high 14 points on 3 of 6 shooting from the floor and 8 of 10 shooting from the free-throw line.
CSU Pueblo improved to 13-10 overall and 8-7 in the RMAC after shooting 46% from the field, 22% from 3-point range and 75% from the free-throw line.
CSU Pueblo forward Alisha Little stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, five steals and four blocks.
“Alisha is a fabulous player,” Lorenzen said. “She plays very calm, cool and collected.”
The Skyhawks had a 16-13 lead after the first quarter but struggled in the second quarter and trailed 29-28 at half.
The offensive struggles continued and CSU Pueblo jumped out to a 48-39 lead after three quarters, and Fort Lewis couldn’t come back.
Both teams are back in action on the road Tuesday at Adams State, starting with the women’s game at 5:30 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
