Last weekend in South Dakota, the Skyhawks needed a couple of bailout individual performances from Joshua Blaylock and Rasmus Bach to sneak out with two wins. On Friday’s historic night at Whalen Gymnasium, the No. 10 Skyhawks did it as team.
Fourteen Fort Lewis players logged minutes and nine of them scored Friday night as Fort Lewis extended its winning streak to eight with a 86-61 home win against Western State. Joshua Blaylock led the Skyhawks again with 18 points, but he had plenty of help this time around as senior Cade Kloster poured in 15 and Will Morse added 13.
Before the opening tip, Fort Lewis honored legendary coach Bob Hofman by naming the Whalen Gymnasium court in his name.
“It was a special night for the program, and I’m happy for Bob (Hofman) and his family,” head coach Bob Pietrack said. “It was a wonderful evening, and there was no way we weren’t going to live up to our end of the bargain and go out with a loss.”
The Skyhawks used two 7-0 first half runs to build a double-digit lead behind Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week, Blaylock, who kept his scorching offensive play going with 13 first half points. They put the game away with a huge second half run.
Fort Lewis (20-3, 15-3 RMAC) took an 11-point lead into the locker room at halftime, but the Mountaineers sliced into it to begin the second half.
Western State wouldn’t lay down for the RMAC leaders and quickly got to within single digits. Each time it looked as though the visitors were making a run to spoil the special evening at Whalen, the Skyhawks pushed back.
“We know at this point that we’re getting everyone’s best shot,” Morse said.
As soon as the Mountaineers (4-20, 3-15 RMAC) cut the FLC lead to nine, Kloster nailed a 3-pointer to build a bigger cushion. When Western State answered, it was a Kofi Josephs 3 response and a Kody Salcido up and under that built the lead back up.
No matter what the opponents threw their way, the Skyhawks had a series of answers.
Finally, a 14-0 mid-second-half run stretched a nine-point FLC lead to 23 and put a cap on a historic night for Fort Lewis College basketball.
“Playing for (Coach Hofman) was a great experience,” said Kloster. “We wanted to make it a memorable night for him, but more importantly, we want to finish the season strong.”
The Skyhawks will try to push the winning streak to nine with a 7:30 p.m. tip Saturday against CSU-Pueblo, the top offense in the league and one of the premier guards in Chris Golden.
Salcido finished with nine points for Fort Lewis while Bach and Josephs had eight in the win.
“I like competing against guys like that,” Blaylock said. “Hopefully I can make it as tough as possible for him. I’m ready.”
The last time the two teams met, Blaylock scored 20 and held Golden to a season-low three points in a 87-76 FLC win.
jfries@durangoherald.com
