The only guarantee heading into Saturday’s Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title game between No. 14 Colorado Mines and No. 21 Fort Lewis was neither team could be counted out until the final buzzer sounded.
Last year’s RMAC Shootout title game was finished off by Joshua Blaylock free throws at the end of regulation. Earlier this season, Colorado Mines (27-4) survived a late FLC comeback at Whalen Gymnasium to win in overtime. Saturday’s game was the same old story.
The Skyhawks (25-6) led by nine points with 2:06 left in regulation, but the Orediggers crawled all the back as Ben Clare made two free throws with 2 seconds left to send the game into overtime. Once again, the Orediggers came out on top and avenged last year’s disappointing loss with a 102-98 win.
Rasmus Bach led all scorers with 29 points. Blaylock added 26 and Alex Semadeni finished off an impressive weekend with 17 points.
Luke Schroepfer led the Orediggers with 24 points. Clare had 23 and RMAC Tournament Most Valuable Player Gokul Natesan finished with 20.
“I didn’t think we could have another epic game that matched the last few games we’ve played with Fort Lewis,” Colorado Mines head coach Pryor Orser said in a postgame interview. “Blaylock and Bach are two of the best players in Division II basketball. I don’t even know how we won. I have to go back and watch the film.”
Both teams came into the game shorthanded as seniors Will Morse and Ross Buchman were unavailable for Fort Lewis and senior Caleb Waitsman couldn’t go for Colorado Mines.
Fort Lewis, however, got off to a great start.
The Skyhawks put together an 11-0 run in the first half that gave them a double-digit lead, while nothing was going right for Colorado Mines. A few sloppy FLC possessions turned the momentum to the Orediggers and they ran with it. The RMAC regular-season champions rattled off a 12-0 run to claim the lead and, all of a sudden, the Skyhawks couldn’t buy a bucket.
Colorado Mines guard Kaan Korkmaz scored 11 points in final five minutes of the half and the Orediggers finished off the first 20 minutes on a 22-7 run. The change in momentum and the hot stretch from Korkmaz led to a 39-34 Colorado Mines halftime lead.
The Skyhawks grabbed the momentum back once again to begin the second half behind Bach’s strong start. He poured in seven consecutive points to help FLC reclaim the lead, and another epic Orediggers-Skyhawks finish was in the making.
The teams exchanged the lead eight times in the first 11 minutes of the second half. Eventually, Bach and the Skyhawks took over. The All-RMAC second-teamer caught fire and knocked down two huge 3-pointers and another bucket to pump the FLC lead up to nine.
“My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball at the right spots,” Bach said. “I hit my shots but credit to Mines. They’re a great team but we had some turnovers in the end that really cost us.”
The Orediggers wouldn’t go away and hung in there until those turnovers crept up on the Skyhawks. The late turnovers by Fort Lewis and a couple missed free throws down the stretch gave the Orediggers a chance to tie or win on the final possession. Natesan fired up a long 3-pointer and missed, but Clare was there to clean up the rebound, got fouled and sent the game to overtime at the free throw line.
The Orediggers built a six-point lead in the last two minutes of overtime. Though the Skyhawks got it back to within two, Natesan knocked down a pair of late free throws to ice the game and clinch the RMAC Tournament title.
“I’m really proud of my guys,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Without two seniors, they had every reason to fold in this tournament and they fought so hard until the very end. We’ll probably be right back here next week and we’ll regroup. We’ll shake this off as quick as we can and be ready for the next one.”
Fort Lewis and Colorado Mines will go on to play in the NCAA Division II Men’s College Basketball Tournament. The brackets and location will be announced late Sunday.
jfries@durangoherald.com
