Over his five-year Fort Lewis career, senior guard Junior Garbrah has certainly learned when it’s his time to step up. Garbrah did that tonight and scored six of his 11 points in the final three minutes, including two clutch free throws with less than 10 seconds left to help win at MSU Denver 94-91 Friday night.
Fort Lewis improved to 25-2 overall and 20-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after it shot 56% from the field, 53% from the 3-point line and 78% from the free-throw line in the win.
“That was a big-time RMAC basketball game, it was very tough on the road,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said. “I loved our toughness down the stretch to gut out a highly contested game. It’s a big win for us and it sets up for an even bigger game tomorrow.”
MSU Denver fell to 18-9 overall and 12-9 in the RMAC after it shot 53% from the field, 32% from the 3-point line and 73% from the free-throw line in the loss.
The Skyhawks were led by senior guard Malik Whitaker’s 17 points on 6-10 shooting from the field, 3-3 from 3-point range and 2-4 from the free-throw line along with seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Tristan Hurdle had a season-high 17 points on 7-8 shooting from the field and 3-4 shooting from downtown in only 14 minutes. Junior guard Obi Agbim had 14 points, five rebounds and six assists.
Caleb McGill led MSU Denver with 22 points on 10-11 shooting from the field and 2-3 3-point shooting along with eight rebounds. Luke Jones had 17 points on 5-8 shooting from the field, 3-5 from downtown and 4-7 from the free-throw line. Mario Lacy Jr. had 15 and KJ Garrett had 12 as well for the Roadrunners.
Fort Lewis jumped out to an 11-4 lead four minutes into the first half but MSU Denver’s Caden Holmes hit a 3-pointer to give the Roadrunners a 19-16 lead with 12:32 left.
The Skyhawks responded and carried a slim lead for the rest of the half and led 46-42 at halftime. Fort Lewis was able to keep a lead to finish the half in large part due to Hurdle’s play. He was hitting from downtown and in the midrange with some timely buckets. Hurdle scored 12 points on 5-6 shooting from the field and 2-3 from downtown in only eight minutes.
“There was no way we win the game tonight if we don't have Tristan Hurdle on our team,” Pietrack said. “He kept us going in the first half and hit a big 3-pointer in the second half. He played really well. And that's the epitome of our team this year. We're getting contributions from all 10 guys and we need all 10 to make it work.”
To start the second half, the Roadrunners took an early lead but the Skyhawks responded. A Hurdle 3-pointer and two free throws by redshirt sophomore forward Amondo Miller Jr. put the Skyhawks up 63-54 with 13 minutes left.
Fort Lewis continued to hold an eight to 10-point lead with strong play inside the paint. Senior center Sekou Dembele showed off his strength with a powerful post move to put the Skyhawks up 75-65 with 8:37 left.
Dembele had a questionable play afterward. After MSU Denver’s Luke Jones got an offensive rebound, Dembele wrapped him up and threw him to the ground and immediately received a technical and an intentional foul.
The Dembele foul turned the momentum of the game. He fouled out shortly after and MSU Denver had three straight trips to the free-throw line and cut the lead to 75-71 with 7:34 left.
Junior forward Brayden Carter had a huge 30 seconds late in the second half. He blocked Lacy’s layup attempt, then on the other end had a put-back plus the foul to put the Skyhawks up 83-76 with 5:18 left.
The pace of the game all of a sudden picked up. Luke Jones hit an open 3-pointer in the corner for MSU Denver and that was quickly followed up by an Agbim layup. But Lacy raced down the court and slammed down a jam to cut the Fort Lewis lead to 87-84 with 3:21 left.
Garbrah hit two key buckets inside to give the Skyhawks a 91-84 lead before Maldonado hit a 3-pointer to make it 91-87 with a minute left.
After a Lacy jam, Whitaker went to the free-throw line and made one free-throw to put the Skyhawks up 92-89 with 19 seconds left.
MSU Denver cut the lead to one and Garbrah made two clutch free throws with nine seconds left. On the other end up three, Miller deflected an MSU Denver pass, the ball went out of bounds and possession to Fort Lewis and the Skyhawks came away with the win.
Fort Lewis is back in action Saturday at Colorado School of Mines at 7 p.m. If Fort Lewis can win, it will clinch the top seed in the RMAC tournament and a share of the RMAC regular season championship.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
