After a nine-day layoff, the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team was back on the hardwood Friday night. Though it took awhile for the Skyhawks to get started, the result was familiar.
The Skyhawks (4-0) shook off the rust in the first half and ran away in the second, as they extended their season-opening winning streak to four games by defeating Haskell Indian Nations University 78-64 Friday night in Golden.
Rasmus Bach led the way for Fort Lewis with 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, and senior Jared Smith nearly had a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. Smith was one of three Skyhawks to finish with nine points in a deep offensive attack that saw three players finish in double figures. Will Morse finished with 12 points and Joshua Blaylock added 10.
“We were awfully rusty for awhile in the first half, and we couldn’t make any shots which meant that we couldn’t gain any momentum,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Our defense stepped up in the second half and we started sharing the ball which led to a balanced scoring attack, and we finally grabbed the momentum.”
Neither team could get momentum in the early going, as the two teams went toe-to-toe exchanging buckets. Fort Lewis clung to a narrow 36-35 halftime lead after a half in which the largest lead for either team was four points. There were 10 lead changes in the opening 20 minutes.
With the holiday rust off their wings after a cold shooting first half (37.93 percent), the Skyhawks finally gained some much needed momentum out of the locker room and shot 50 percent (14-of-28) from the field the rest of the game. Haskell shot 51.72 percent from the floor in the first half but was limited to 37.93 percent in the second half and made only 3-of-13 shots from 3-point land after going 3-of-7 in the first half.
FLC also got to the free-throw line twice as much as Haskell, going 18-of-22 while holding Haskell to 6-of-11.
“We picked up the full court pressure on defense and started challenging them to beat us for the entire length of the floor,” Pietrack said. “The defensive effort was great, and it just took some time to get back in the flow we play at again.”
When they found their rhythm, the result was a 42-29 second half that put the game away for the Skyhawks. Bach’s seven consecutive points closed out a 12-3 early second-half run that extended the Fort Lewis lead to double-digits. The run was never answered by Haskell (2-6), as Bach and the pressure defense never let up.
“Rasmus is an all-league talent,” Pietrack said. “We need him to score, rebound and play defense all the time, and he’s been doing that on a nightly basis for us. Anyone who follows Fort Lewis basketball can see that he’s a heck of a player for us, and he’s getting better and growing before our eyes.”
Kody Salcido added seven rebounds in nine minutes off the bench for the Skyhawks. Blaylock led the team with four assists.
Duelle Gore led Haskell with a game-high 26 points and seven rebounds. He also had three steals and one blocked shot.
Fort Lewis will hope to keep the momentum going as it takes on Evangel University at 5 p.m. Saturday in Golden.
jfries@durangoherald.com
