Four days after losing its backup point guard in a win the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team wasn’t pleased with, the Skyhawks will take the floor again Wednesday looking to answer some questions.
The Skyhawks (4-0) will welcome University of the Southwest, an NAIA team out of Hobbs, New Mexico, at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Whalen Gymnasium. The Mustangs (4-4) have a pair of wins against Northern New Mexico this season and are coming off a tough 84-77 loss Sunday at Texas-Permian Basin, one of the top teams in the NCAA Division II South Central Region.
“They gave us a real scare last year when we were down 14 with 12 minutes to go,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “They are capable and have played Division II teams this year to very good games. They are the best NAIA team on our schedule, so we will be very prepared to play the game.”
It was confirmed early this week that FLC junior guard Cesar Molina will miss the rest of the season after he suffered a severe injury to his lower left leg during Saturday’s 81-72 win against Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
He had averaged nearly 15 minutes in the three previous games and was fifth on the team in scoring at 7.5 points per game. Molina can take a medical redshirt if desired to save a year of NCAA eligibility.
“He will not play again until next year,” Pietrack said Tuesday. “Any time you have a player on a team go down who was playing significant minutes, it opens the door for somebody else to step up. It’s not going to be one person on our roster. It’s going to be a collective that has to make up for the minutes Cesar was giving us. He was giving us really good minutes.”
The Skyhawks’ starting point guard, Logan Hokanson, has played through a wrist injury the past two weekends, so FLC is thin at guard now. Saturday, it was freshman Junior Garbrah who filled in for Molina down the stretch of what became a very close game.
“Junior is very tough,” Pietrack said. “It starts with his background growing up in Australia before he spent the last two years playing very high-level high school basketball in Arizona. He’s a tough-minded young man who brings great energy and isn’t scared of the moment. We always thought he was going to be an all-league player down the road, but we are going to need him to be very efficient moving forward this year.”
Pietrack doesn’t want to put too much of a load on the freshman’s shoulders, so sophomore Levy Miguel will also get more playing time, and Pietrack indicated he may play more of a larger lineup.
Pietrack said Hokanson will become more of an offensive threat once healthy. FLC has been able to score at a high rate and relies on the point guard for ball handling and distribution. With center Riley Farris scoring 23.8 points per game and Danny Garrick and Akuel Kot both at 16 points per game, FLC has a true three-headed scoring attack. Kot is still only a freshman, while Garrick is a senior transfer who has a knack for hitting big shots at the right time. He has already made 15-of-30 3-point attempts this season.
“(Kot) is a special player who is gonna be very good for this program for many years to come,” Farris said. “To see what he’s doing out there, he’s growing in front of our eyes.
“(Garrick) really digs us out of holes when we need him. It’s amazing to see how he can get us out of a rut.”
Pietrack would like to get more out of junior Will Wittman, who could see more time at shooting guard if Garrick is moved to small forward and the Skyhawks play two big men inside. Wittman has scored 8.8 points per game but has battled some foul trouble early this season.
“We need to find more shots from Wittman and have him on the floor more,” Pietrack said. “When he’s on the floor, we’re better. We’re also going to need all those guys on the bench to step up scoring-wise as we move into conference.”
Garrick said playing on a Wednesday night reminded him of his high school playing days and said the Skyhawks would be ready for the quick turnaround from Saturday to this week’s game.
FLC was unhappy with the energy it played with last weekend, especially on the defensive end. Farris said that would be the focus in practice leading into Wednesday’s matchup with the Mustangs.
Pietrack is not the type of coach who believes losing is sometimes a good thing, but he was happy to see his team learn a lesson while still winning against Embry-Riddle.
“We weren’t prepared nor did we have the energy to win against good teams Saturday,” Pietrack said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the team respond to an effort that we know was below our standard.”
After an electric start to the season, Farris was named the RMAC’s Offensive Player of the Week for Week 2 after his performances against Northern New Mexico and Embry-Riddle.
He scored 23 against Northern New Mexico and added 11 rebounds in that game. He added 25 points, including 10 in the opening five minutes of the second half, against Embry-Riddle.
“He is an absolute threat to win the award every week,” Pietrack said. “He’s a beautiful offensive basketball player. Riley would also be the first to say he needs to improve defensively and in rebounding for us to be the team that we want to be. But, offensively, there’s not a center in the country we’d rather have.”
A fresh batch of NCAA Division II top 25 rankings were released Tuesday. FLC is not receiving any votes in the National Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
With 16 first-place votes, Northwest Missouri State (5-0) is tops in the nation. The highest-ranked team from the South Central Region is No. 5 West Texas A&M (5-0) followed by No. 12 St. Edward’s (5-0).
The RMAC does not have a ranked team but does have four teams receiving votes. Dixie State (3-0) is only 13 points away from the top 25 with 20 points and has wins against Texas A&M Commerce, UT Tyler and Saint Martin’s.
Dixie is followed in the poll by Colorado School of Mines (2-2) with seven points. Mines dropped out of the top 25, where it was ranked as high as No. 14, after a 74-66 loss to Nebraska Kearney. Mines lost its season opener 85-84 in overtime to St. Mary’s. It has beat Lubbock Christian and Fort Hays State.
New Mexico Highlands (4-0) received three points. Highlands has beat the same teams as FLC except for Embry-Riddle with two wins against Western New Mexico and one win against Eastern New Mexico and Northern New Mexico.
Regis (2-0) also appeared in the poll with one point, as the Rangers have wins against Texas teams in Lubbock Christian and St. Mary’s.
A win Wednesday would make FLC the first team in the conference to five wins.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
If you go
Who:
University of the Southwest (4-4) at Fort Lewis College (4-0)
What:
College basketball
When:
7 p.m. today
Where:
Whalen Gymnasium, FLC campus
Twitter:
@jlivi2
