The Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team adjusted when play didn’t go its way Wednesday night.
It was a tale of two halves at Whalen Gymnasium. The Fort Lewis Skyhawks’ offense wasn’t clicking the way they would have liked, but they took over the game in the second half with tenacious defense en route to a 86-71 non-conference win against Northern New Mexico, an NAIA program.
The FLC defense forced 17 turnovers, and Rasmus Bach led the way with 23 points. Cade Kloster had 17 points and Will Morse added 12 in the win, the third in a row for the Skyhawks to open the season.
Joshua Blaylock had 11 points and four assists and Kody Salcido had 10 points and eight rebounds to help in the win. Austin Haldorson also had eight rebounds.
It was a nice showing for FLC despite going 7-of-25 from behind the 3-point line.
“The first half wasn’t very indicative of what we are capable of,” said FLC head coach Bob Pietrack. “We took too many 3s and only shot four free throws. We’re a good 3-point shooting team, but we can’t take that many 3s, and there was definitely some frustration at halftime.”
It was a back-and-forth first half that saw seven lead changes. Neither team could build a comfortable lead.
The Skyhawks (3-0) only made 4-of-21 shots from behid the 3-point line, but the troublesome 19 percent from beyond the arc didn’t put FLC in a hole as it shot 60 percent from the rest of the field.
Late in half, a 9-2 run highlighted by a Bach dunk and sharp shooting from Kloster and Morse gave Fort Lewis a slight cushion heading into halftime.
Bach’s nine first-half points and Morse’s eight led Fort Lewis to a 39-33 halftime lead.
After struggling from long range and barely getting to the foul line, Fort Lewis changed things up.
The Skyhawks got to the basket early and often in the second half and came out of the locker room with a 6-1 run that extended their lead to double digits.
The Eagles (3-2) responded with a 6-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to five, but the Skyhawks never let them get any closer.
Fort Lewis answered the Northern New Mexico run with a 7-0 run to get extend the lead back to double digits, and that’s when the defensive pressure was turned up a notch by Pietrack’s men.
The Skyhawks forced turnover after turnover with an aggressive 2-3 zone defense Northern New Mexico couldn’t penetrate or shoot over the top of. The defensive pressure turned into some easy baskets for Fort Lewis and the result was a 14-2 run that put the game out of reach.
“We were man-to-man the whole first half and it’s a nice change-up with the zone,” Kloster said. “It gets them moving differently, gets them out of rhythm and shortens the shot clock, so that made a difference.”
After the lack of success in the first half from 3-point land, the Skyhawks only attempted four in the second half as they worked the interior and ended up winning the points in the paint battle 32-24.
Northern New Mexico was led by Marcus Ellis’ 16 points and five rebounds. Daniel Delgado had a game-high nine rebounds to go with eight points.
The adjustment on the offensive end also led to Fort Lewis shooting 20 second-half foul shots, five times more than the four they shot in the first half.
“I thought we were a touch tired (Wednesday night),” Pietrack said. “We can’t apologize or complain about being 3-0 or winning by double digits. They have a good team and we respect Northern New Mexico. We’re proud of where we’re at, but we still need to get better.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
