Instead of fighting Snowdown for people’s time in the evening, the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team decided to join it.
The Skyhawks will host Adams State at 3 p.m. Saturday, their first afternoon conference game since Feb. 1, 2008, when they played CSU-Pueblo at a 2 p.m. time slot.
“It’s something new; we haven’t done it before,” FLC head coach Bob Hofman said. “It’s kind of an experiment. Hopefully we can have this game, kind of, be a part of Snowdown.”
FLC (12-5, 9-3 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) split its last two weekends, one at home and one away, and will have to handle a surging Adams State (11-6, 7-6 RMAC).
The Grizzlies are on a four-game winning streak and handed then-No. 11 Colorado Mines its first home loss of the season 89-75 on Jan. 24.
“(Their record) is very deceiving. They lost a couple games early at home, and they’ve had to dig themselves out since,” Hofman said. “Mines is a special team, and they didn’t just beat them, they pounded them. Then Mines turns around and pounds us, so they have to be extremely confident.”
Adams State ranks second in the RMAC and sixth nationally in scoring at 91.3 points per game. Four Grizzlies average double-digit points per game, led by Juwann Buchanan’s 12.2 points per contest.
“They’re really hard to defend because they do such a great job as a coaching staff of going to the player or players in a given game who have it going,” Hofman said. “It can be one to 12. They’ve had 12, even 13 guys who have had big games for them.”
That balance is going to take a team effort by FLC to stop.
“It can’t be four guys or three guys. It’s gotta be five guys at all times,” FLC guard Mike Matthews said. “They are a threat at every position.”
Rebounding will go a long way to determine who wins Saturday’s game: Adams State only allows its opponents 30.6 rebounds per game, second in the conference, while FLC secures 37.8 rebounds per game, good for third in the RMAC.
“They’re a great rebounding team, and we’re not,” Hofman said. “We’re going to have to somehow hold our own on the boards.”
Having a great crowd on hand could help with that.
“We still need to build a home-court advantage. We’ve been here so few times that it’s a little bit difficult,” Hofman said. “Hopefully we can have a good crowd because we’ll really need it.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
