The No. 15 Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team faced a daunting task in Friday’s season-opening matchup at the Lone Star Conference/RMAC Challenge.
The Skyhawks’ opponent, West Texas A&M, already had three games under its belt heading into the contest, and the Buffaloes were coming off a win against No. 23 Arkansas-Fort Smith.
Fort Lewis jumped out to a double-digit first half lead but couldn’t sustain the success through the second half. West Texas A&M (4-0), behind 21 points from Division II Preseason All-American David Chavlovich, pulled away late to beat Fort Lewis 90-82.
Joshua Blaylock and Rasmus Bach each had 21 points to lead FLC, while Riley Farris added 15 points off the bench.
“This was a high-quality and intense game to start the season,” Skyhawks head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Considering where we’re at, with a lot of new guys and this being our first game, there were a lot of positives.”
The first half went about as good as anyone could have hoped for to start the season. FLC shot 7-for-10 from 3-point range and led by 14 points at one point in the opening 20 minutes.
“We were making shots, and we had a really good flow going in the first half,” Pietrack said. “There were a couple of tough calls against us to start the second half, but that’s life on the road. We were in foul trouble and they took advantage.”
With forward Ross Buchman out with an injury, the already shorthanded Skyhawks got into foul trouble, and the home team surged.
The Buffaloes shot 58 percent from the floor in the second half, 5-for-8 from long range, and made 21 of 24 free throws in an offensive barrage that turned the game around. They used a 12-2 run midway through the half to grab a lead.
The Skyhawks (0-1) trailed 69-61 midway through the second half but came back to tie with an 8-0 run of their own.
FLC shot just 33 percent in the final 20 minutes, though, and went cold down the stretch before another Chavlovich 3-pointer put it away for good for West Texas A&M.
“It’ll take a little while to find the right combinations out there,” Pietrack said. “I loved the way we competed until the end, and some of our new guys look like they’ll be really good RMAC ballplayers for years to come.”
Fort Lewis will look to get in the win column at 6:30 p.m. Saturday against Eastern New Mexico.
jfries@durangoherald.com
