For awhile Friday night, it looked like the No. 16 Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team was well on its way to shutting down the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s best offense, as it did nearly a month ago, and would extend its winning streak to seven.
On Dec. 12, the Skyhawks (11-2, 6-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) stymied Colorado Christian’s high-powered offense at Whalen Gymnasium en route to a 84-68 win. With FLC ahead 39-32 Friday at halftime, it looked as though the same outcome was likely. This time, however, the Cougars’ offense came alive down the stretch and, when the shots started falling, there wasn’t much that could stop them as Colorado Christian came all the way back to win 80-73.
Joshua Blaylock led Fort Lewis with 16 points, Rasmus Bach had 14 and Austin Haldorson added 11 in the loss.
“It was just their night, and we have to tip our hat to them,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “You can’t win them all, especially on the road in this conference. We just have to put this one past us and get ready for Saturday.”
Colorado Christian leads the RMAC in scoring at 82 points-per-game and, after only managing 32 first-half points on Friday against Fort Lewis, it was only a matter of time before the Cougars caught fire.
When they did, the fire was hard to put out.
The Cougars (7-7, 3-5 RMAC) scorched the nets in the second half with 48 points. They shot 63 percent (12-of-19) from 3-point range for the game and knocked off the RMAC’s top team one week after giving New Mexico Highlands its first loss of the season.
Andre Lane led Colorado Christian with 20 points on 6-for-8 from long range. Ty McGee had 14 points, and Zach McLemore finished with 12 in Colorado Christian’s third consecutive win.
The Cougars had an early 5-2 lead but never led again until back-to-back 3-pointers by Lane gave the Cougars a 63-62 lead, and the RMAC’s top scoring offense took flight from there. Three of the six 3-pointers Lane made came in the last five minutes of play and sealed the deal for the home team.
The Skyhawks played their usual tough defense, but nothing short of a power outage could have prevented Colorado Christian from making the contested shots Lane and his teammates were throwing up.
Fort Lewis traded baskets with the suddenly hot Colorado Christian team but couldn’t match the efficiency late in the game as one basket after another fell for the home team.
“Sometimes losing is part of winning,” Pietrack said. “It’s a bounce-back schedule in this league, and we can’t get too high when we win or too low when we lose. We’ll have to bring our A-game (Saturday) because we’re facing one of the top programs around and a defending league champion.”
The Skyhawks will have a chance to bounce back at 7 p.m. Saturday in Golden as they take on Colorado School of Mines. Fort Lewis won the previous matchup 64-53 on Dec. 11 in Durango.
The Orediggers are coming off a 85-71 win against Adams State.
jfries@durangoherald.com
