On Thursday night, it looked like Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis College men’s basketball teams were in for another thrilling game for about 30 minutes. But, the Mavericks’ domination on the boards and poor free-throw shooting from FLC allowed Colorado Mesa to leave Durango with a 93-83 win.
The Skyhawks turned over the Mavericks 29 times but when they weren’t turning over Colorado Mesa, FLC had no answer for Colorado Mesa’s size inside; the Mavericks played three players who were over 6-foot-8-inches and 215 pounds. Colorado Mesa destroyed FLC on the glass 59-23.
On offense, FLC got Colorado Mesa in foul trouble and went to the foul line. But the Skyhawks shot 42% from the foul line (11-26) in the second half.
“You get out-rebounded by 36 and missed 23 free throws, it's going to be really hard to win,” FLC head coach Jordan Mast said. “Our effort was there. We played with the right level of intensity. We basically were letting them shoot until they scored... I'm not as disappointed as the Highlands loss. The guys played with a lot of heart tonight. They just didn't execute in the half court with the same intensity they did in full court.”
FLC fell to 15-9 overall and 9-6 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after it shot 34% from the field, 39% from the 3-point line and 54% from the foul line. The Skyhawks have lost consecutive games for the first time since early December.
Senior guard Biko Johnson led FLC with 22 points on 4-12 shooting from the field, 4-10 from 3-point range and 10-16 from the free-throw line. Senior forward Chuol Deng added 14 points.
Colorado Mesa improved to 14-9 overall and 8-7 in the RMAC after it shot 56% from the field, 46% from 3-point range and 82% from the free-throw line.
Ty Allred led the Mavericks with 19 points on 6-8 shooting from the field, 3-3 from 3-point range and 4-5 from the free-throw line. Yaak Yaak added 15 points and 11 rebounds and Will Mortimore had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Deng, hobbled by an ankle injury suffered during practice, hit the first 3-pointer. Junior forward Cassius Carmichael hit the next and Johnson got in on the act as FLC led 9-5 with 17 minutes left in the third. Mike Dunlap, Colorado Mesa’s new coach with NBA and Division I head coaching experience, was furious and called a timeout. He told his team to wake up with a few expletives mixed in.
Colorado Mesa settled in on offense and attacked the paint. FLC shot from outside and freshman guard AJ Riggs hit a 3-pointer from the corner off good ball movement. The game was tied at 16 with 11:24 left in the first.
FLC continued to shoot from the outside and found some success with 3-pointers by fifth year guard Tru Allen and Deng. The game remained tied at 24 with seven minutes left in the first.
Once again, turnovers were FLC’s meal ticket to compete. Colorado Mesa shot 60% in the first 16 minutes of the half but had turned the ball over 13 times. FLC was shooting 33% but turned the ball over only three times.
The Skyhawks got into the bonus and to the free-throw line late as their main source of offense. Johnson lived at the line late and was masterful with how he was drawing fouls, much to the dismay of Dunlap on the sideline. Right before the half, Johnson picked up the ball behind half court, threw it up and it went in to cut Colorado Mesa’s lead to 45-44 at halftime.
FLC started the second half by attacking the basket instead of living and dying by the 3-pointers. The Skyhawks continued to get steals everywhere. Junior guard Malachi Coleman had back-to-back fast break dunk attempts and was fouled on both. He went 2-4 from the line and FLC led 53-47 with 15:50 left.
Colorado Mesa responded with a 7-0 run, mostly from inside. The rebounding margin became more apparent as the Mavericks were basically playing catch with themselves on the offensive glass.
Yaak showed his presence inside as Colorado Mesa tried to stretch its lead. The Skyhawks didn’t have the size to contain him and he crashed the offensive glass successfully to put the Mavericks up 62-57 with 9:45 left.
“I've never been in a game like that,” Mast said. “I've never even seen one in all my years playing or coaching where we force 29 turnovers and on the flip side, they went big. That's why I didn't think they could handle our pressure. So we were small and we turned them over... it was contrasting styles. They went big, we went small. We got some good stuff out of it. They got some great stuff out of it. It comes down to making shots, which they did at a higher level than we did tonight.”
FLC struggled to convert at the line and was 3-11 from the charity stripe in the second half with eight minutes left.
The Mavericks stretched their lead to 10 before FLC hit some outside shots and some free-throws to cut the lead to 68-65 with 6:24 left.
FLC did its best to defend Yaak inside and keep within striking distance. But free throws weren’t falling and the Mavericks broke the Skyhawks’ press multiple times. Christopher Speller had an acrobatic finish plus the foul to the Mavericks up eight with less than three minutes left to seal the game.
The Skyhawks play Western Colorado at home on Saturday at 3 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
