The men’s basketball team at Fort Lewis College didn’t waste much time taking command of its game with Johnson & Wales University.
The No. 23 Skyhawks (3-1) doubled up the Wildcats (0-12) in the first half to take a 42-21 lead at halftime and coasted to a 96-66 victory Saturday afternoon at Whalen Gymnasium in Durango.
“Defensively, we’ve been a little bit better this season than in previous seasons. Starting off, we’ve been able to hold teams to a low shooting percentage, especially in the first half,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “We feel we’re a lot better basketball team than we were two weeks ago, and we have a lot of room to improve, but I think we’re getting there.”
The Skyhawks held Johnson & Wales to slightly below 40 percent shooting while they hit on 58 percent of their attempts.
FLC took control of the game by getting the ball inside and using its size to get high percentage shots.
Marquel Beasley and Brandon Wilson were the anchors in the post and helped the Skyhawks with a dangerous inside-out game plan.
“Wilson and Beasley were dominant inside. We could have thrown it in there every possession if we wanted to,” Pietrack said.
Rasmus Bach benefited from the attention the bigs received inside and led the Skyhawks with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting.
Beasley finished with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting and Wilson scored 12 to go with a team high 16 rebounds.
Alex Semadeni added 13 points, and Daniel Hernandez and DJ Miles scored 10 each to give the Skyhawks six players in double figures.
The win also continues FLC’s dominance inside Whalen Gymasium. Since Pietrack took over as head coach, he and associate head coach Daniel Steffensen have amassed a 34-1 home record, with the lone loss coming in overtime last season to Colorado Mines.
FLC will begin its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schedule Friday when the Skyhawks take on Colorado State University-Pueblo (2-3) in Pueblo before heading to Las Vegas, New Mexico, to play New Mexico Highlands University (5-1) on Saturday.
“It’s a little bit of a rivalry game for us,” Pietrack said of CSU-Pueblo. “We’ve played them in the RMAC tournament many times and it’ll be a really good game. Same with Highlands. That road trip to start off the RMAC is as tough as any we’ll go on all year long.”
kschneider@durangoherald.com
