Postseason basketball is right around the corner.
The Fort Lewis men’s basketball team will host a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference game. And if all goes well, the Skyhawks will host the RMAC semifinals and championship game next Friday and Saturday.
The women’s basketball team hasn’t officially been eliminated the RMAC tournament, but Fort Lewis would need numerous tiebreakers to go its way. The Skyhawks women’s team hasn’t played in the RMAC tournament since the 2017-18 season.
Here’s an up-to-date breakdown of what the prospects are for both teams:
The Skyhawks were 8-5 in the RMAC entering February, but have lost six of their past seven games.
Fort Lewis (9-11 in RMAC play) is now in ninth place in the conference and two games behind CSU Pueblo, which currently holds in the final spot for the RMAC tournament.
This past weekend, the final nail in the coffin for the women’s postseason hopes came in a blowout loss to Black Hills State, 87-53, last Friday and a 73-60 loss to South Dakota Mines the following day.
In these two games, Fort Lewis shot 38% from the field and got out-rebounded by an average of 20.5 rebounds.
The Skyhawks’ frontcourt depth issues were highlighted. Fort Lewis could’ve used the 15 points and 15 rebounds per game it lost when forwards Lilly Pepper and Sydney Bevington were lost for the season in early December.
The Skyhawks theoretically could tie CSU Pueblo in the win-loss column with two wins and if CSU Pueblo loses its final two games, but the ThunderWolves own the second tiebreaker, which is a point-based performance index system.
A lot of upsets would need to happen for CSU Pueblo to not get the final spot.
This tiebreaker most likely won’t come into effect because the Skyhawks would have to beat Colorado School of Mines on the road on Saturday, which is 15-5 in the league and 20-6 overall. Colorado School of Mines already beat Fort Lewis 81-62 earlier this season.
Fort Lewis is a half-game behind Colorado Mesa for first place in the RMAC.
Colorado Mesa is 20-1 in the league after its win over Westminster on Tuesday. Fort Lewis is 19-1 in the league with two games to go on Friday at MSU Denver and at Colorado School of Mines.
The Mavericks only have one game to go at Western Colorado, which they should win.
If both teams finish at 21-1 in the league, the Skyhawks and the Mavericks will be RMAC co-regular season champions. However, Fort Lewis will be the top seed in the RMAC tournament because it beat Colorado Mesa in its one meeting and therefore holds the tiebreaker.
As for the NCAA Division II tournament, it still appears Fort Lewis will be heading to West Texas A&M for the regional opener of the NCAA tournament. The Buffs are still the top team in the region according to numerous publications, despite their second loss of the season occurring on Saturday.
NCAA.com came out with its regional rankings and the Skyhawks are ranked second in the South Central Region behind West Texas A&M. Colorado Mesa is ranked fourth, Colorado School of Mines is fifth and MSU Denver is eighth.
This is very similar to Phillip Myers of Inkblot Sports bracketology. In Myers’ latest bracket, the Skyhawks are the second seed in the South Central Region behind West Texas A&M. Fort Lewis was a third seed in the last bracket mentioned in the previous article of this series.
Fort Lewis is ranked third in the region in rating percentage index behind West Texas A&M and Colorado Mesa, according to Inkblot Sports. And it seems unlikely West Texas A&M would drop a seed line unless it took multiple losses before the NCAA tournament.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
