Five bad minutes and a second half cold spell cost the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team everything Sunday.
Leading 40-34 at halftime, the fourth-ranked Skyhawks watched their dream season slip away as Angelo State started the second half on a 19-3 run and took a lead it would never give up. The third-seeded Rams closed the game on a 20-5 run to win decisively, 87-66.
“Angelo State played really well (Sunday), and we picked a bad night to have our worst shooting performance,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “We missed some shots we normally make and every time we made a few, (Quay) King had an answer. He was the king of the night for sure.”
All five Angelo State starters scored in double figures, but it was King that did most of the damage. He went 9-for-11 shooting from the field with 25 points thanks to seven made 3-pointers. Omari Godul had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds for Angelo State, and Stedman Allen added 17 points.
Angelo State (25-6) advanced to play in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional final Tuesday against Tarleton State, which beat Lubbock Christian 69-63 in the other semifinal.
Joshua Blaylock had 13 points for Fort Lewis, and Kody Salcido had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in his last game as a Skyhawk.
King ultimately had the last laugh, but it was Fort Lewis that came out firing. The Skyhawks put up 16 first half 3-pointers and made eight of them, as FLC led Angelo State 40-34 at halftime.
The Rams came out of the locker room on fire to start the second half and didn’t let up until the final buzzer. Angelo State made up the six-point deficit in no time and kept going. After the first 5 minutes of the half, the Rams had outscored Fort Lewis 19-3 and eventually turned a six-point deficit into a 12-point lead.
Just like they did Saturday in the first round against Dallas Baptist, Fort Lewis came back after falling behind.
The second-seeded Skyhawks (28-4) got in the bonus with 8:42 left in the game and chipped away at the foul line. They cut the deficit to four, but Angelo State quickly padded its lead with another 3-pointer from King to extend the lead back to 10 with 5 minutes left in the game.
Fort Lewis wouldn’t go quietly, as three consecutive baskets by Salcido got the Skyhawks back to within four, but King and the Rams couldn’t be stopped.
Shots weren’t falling for FLC. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champions shot just 24 percent in the second half and finished the final 20 minutes 2-for-12 from 3-point range.
“I’m not sure if it was anything in particular they did that got us out of rhythm in the second half,” Pietrack said. “Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in for whatever reason. It’s a shame that it happened when it did.”
When Angelo State smelled blood, the Rams went in for the kill. They outscored the Skyhawks 20-5 down the stretch run to put the lights out on Fort Lewis’ dream season.
Rasmus Bach had 10 points in the loss, while Austin Haldorson and Cade Kloster had nine points in their final games for Fort Lewis.
“We’ve got so much respect for what they’ve done this season,” Angelo State head coach Cinco Boone said in a postgame news conference. “The score wasn’t indicative of the kind of battle it was out there. They’re just a lot different than a lot of teams we see, and they gave us trouble for awhile. What a season they had.”
The 2015-16 season, Pietrack’s first in charge replacing longtime head coach Bob Hofman, will go down as the best in Fort Lewis College history. FLC won a school record 16 consecutive games going into Sunday and won the regular season conference championship to go with a thrilling victory in the RMAC Shootout tournament. The Skyhawks’ 28 wins are the most in program history, and FLC’s six seniors will have bragging rights for a long time.
There is no question that a giant void will be present when Fort Lewis gets back at it in preparation for next season. Ryan Brooks, Haldorson, Kofi Josephs, Kloster, Salcido and Jared Smith are the six seniors who led the Skyhawks to their best season ever and will be dearly missed.
“I feel like I came to FLC just a kid and I grew up here with (the other seniors),” an emotional Kloster said in Sunday’s postgame news conference. “We put up the best record in school history in our last season together, so it’s been a heck of a ride. I love these guys and I know they’ll be my best friends for the rest of my life.”
After waving goodbye to his senior core, Pietrack will build next year’s group around a fantastic back court. With Blaylock and Will Morse returning, the Skyhawks will continue to have a lethal shooting duo patrolling the perimeter and a major weapon inside and out in Bach.
For the time being, however, the success Fort Lewis had in Pietrack’s first season should bring a lot of smiles and a great deal of optimism to basketball fans in Durango.
“The journey was just incredible, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything,” Pietrack said. “To have been picked to finish sixth in the conference and prove everyone wrong with 28 wins was beyond special. It was worth every drop of sweat and hard work we put in.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
