From the first possession to the final buzzer, the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team was locked in Saturday night.
The Skyhawks started the game on a 9-0 run and never looked back, as they cruised to a 93-65 victory against Evangel University in Golden on the campus of Colorado Mines.
Fort Lewis’ Cade Kloster led all scorers with 17 points. Joshua Blaylock had 13 points and Kofi Josephs finished with 12 off the bench. Alex Semadeni grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Skyhawks on the glass, while fellow big man Austin Haldorson had 10 points and seven rebounds in the second win for Fort Lewis in back-to-back days against NAIA competition.
“Unlike (Friday) when I thought we were a bit rusty, we were dialed in from the tip in this one,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I think the guys were a bit upset that they didn’t play up to our standard (Friday), but we really played Fort Lewis basketball in the first half.”
If Friday’s 78-64 win against Haskell Indian Nations University was rusty, Saturday’s resembled a well-oiled machine.
Fort Lewis (5-0) scorched the nets from the get-go. Kloster’s 3-pointer on the team’s opening offensive possession set the tone for what was a dominant first half for the Skyhawks. Evangel (1-6) had no answer for the early offensive barrage and, before 5 minutes were gone, the Skyhawks had already built a 19-5 lead.
After nine 3-point makes and an impressive 53 percent shooting performance in the first half from beyond the arc, a 53-26 halftime Fort Lewis lead was the result.
“We want to take 3s if they’re open looks,” Pietrack said. “I was happy with the way we moved the ball and made the extra pass to get the open looks, and a lot of that is just getting back to game speed. Basketball is like a work of art when everyone is on the same page, and it looks like we’re starting to get comfortable with each other out there.”
The high shooting percentage was a product of beautiful ball movement that led to one open look after another. The Skyhawks doubled up the opponents in the assists category with 22 to Evangel’s 11.
With the outcome well in hand at halftime, Pietrack was able to empty the bench in the second half. It didn’t matter who was playing, however, as Fort Lewis poured it on. As the offense kept racking up points, the defense stymied the opposition. Evangel was only able to shoot 36 percent for the evening and couldn’t penetrate the Skyhawks’ defense to create open shots. The stifling FLC defensive effort resulted in 29 points off of 19 forced turnovers.
As the clock ticked down to the 7-minute mark, Fort Lewis had built a 33-point lead and eased off the gas pedal.
The Skyhawks finished 16-for-36 from 3-point range, and their bench outscored Evangel’s 41-18.
Dylan Bekemeier scored 16 points for Evangel in the loss.
Next up for Fort Lewis is a 6 p.m. Wednesday night exhibition at University of Colorado in Boulder in which head coach emeritus and Colorado alum Bob Hofman will be honored and coach one last time beside Pietrack.
“Coach Hofman has had an unbelievable career,” Pietrack said. “We’re all glad to be a part of it, and it’ll be a special night where it all started for him in 1969.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
