For a long time Friday night, it didn’t look good for Fort Lewis College’s men’s basketball team. Down double-digits with 8 minutes left and deep in foul trouble, the Skyhawks rallied.
Late heroics from senior Cade Kloster and sophomore Rasmus Bach led Fort Lewis to a 91-81 comeback win in its home opener against West Texas A&M, a team that received one vote in the Division II preseason poll.
Bach and transfer guard Joshua Blaylock led the Skyhawks with 21 points. Kloster added 20 points in the comeback win, six coming in the game’s final 2 minutes on big 3-pointers.
Four Skyhawks finished in double figures and the team shot 50% from the field. The win is Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack’s first at the helm in his first year replacing longtime coach Bob Hofman.
“This whole season isn’t about me, it’s about this team,” Pietrack said. “This has been a players’ program, and I’m extremely happy to be coaching this team. I’m an alum here, and I’m so glad the first one came at Whalen Gymnasium.”
West Texas A&M came out strong, led for most of the first half and stretched the lead to double-digits behind the sharp shooting and dribble penetration from point guard David Chavlovich. The Buffaloes point guard got to the rim at will in the first half, and his 11 points led the team.
Fortunately for the Skyhawks, Blaylock’s 13 first-half points and 10 from Rasmus Bach kept the home team within reach.
In the final minutes of the first half, Kloster’s traditional three-point play and a technical foul on West Texas A&M’s Tommy Gove led to a five-point possession for the Skyhawks.
The possession helped FLC close the gap to four points to trail 48-44 at halftime.
At the start of the second half, Blaylock’s third 3-pointer of the night tied the game at 52, and Kloster’s jumper on the next possession gave the Skyhawks their first lead since the opening minutes.
It didn’t last, however.
The Buffaloes got the Skyhawks in foul trouble and turned a series of fouls into made free throws that resulted in an 11-0 second-half run. In the midst of the run, the Skyhawks had plenty of open looks but couldn’t get anything to drop.
With every long-range attempt that rattled around the iron and out, the Skyhawks’ frustration grew, but Fort Lewis did its best to cut into another double-digit deficit.
Down 72-61, Will Morse’s five consecutive points gave the Skyhawks some much needed momentum. After a rare second-half defensive stop, a Blaylock 3 cut the deficit to three.
Bach followed with a layup that gave the Skyhawks a 76-75 lead, but the Buffaloes quickly responded with four consecutive points.
Bach again answered with four consecutive points, highlighted by a baseline drive and dunk that put the Skyhawks ahead for good at 80-79.
“It could have been anyone and on this team, someone is going to score 20 any night,” Bach said. “The guys found me in the right spots and the coach called the right plays.”
Kloster’s 3 from the corner gave FLC a four-point lead with 1:38 remaining in the game. The next trip down the floor, he buried another and, this time, it was too late for West Texas A&M to come up with an answer.
“I’m most proud of the way the win happened,” Pietrack said. “We needed every drop of energy from everybody, and it wasn’t looking good for us. We didn’t quit, and I thought our conditioning and hard work pulled us through.”
The win was also Blaylock’s first as a Skyhawk. The junior point guard played the entire second half in his debut.
“We’ve got a strong team, and these guys fight,” Blaylock said. “We never put our heads down when we were down 10 or down five, it doesn’t matter.”
The Skyhawks will look to improve on the 1-0 record at 6 p.m. Saturday against Eastern New Mexico (0-1). The Greyhounds fell 85-77 to New Mexico Highlands on Friday in the opening game of the Skyhawks Regional Challenge in Durango.
jfries@durangoherald.com
