Things weren’t looking good for Fort Lewis with 10 seconds to go against Eastern New Mexico, trailing 74-73 at that point.
The Skyhawks led by as many as 14 points in the second half before Eastern New Mexico fought back to take the lead with less than six minutes to go. A battle ensued and Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack called a timeout after Johnson’s free throws to draw up a play for the win.
“We wanted Obi to get downhill going right and either hit Brayden (Carter) or pull up,” Pietrack said. “The third option was the kick it to Junior. Eastern New Mexico actually defended it pretty well. They didn’t give Brayden the layup, Obi did get downhill going right but he didn't get all the way to the basket. Obi made a very unselfish play and instead of forcing a bad shot he hit Junior coming up from the corner. Junior caught it and we told him if you get to that portion you go make a play.”
Garbrah did exactly that, driving from the right side to the basket and made a contested layup off the glass at the buzzer for the 75-74 win.
Fort Lewis improved to 3-1 on the season with the win, while Eastern New Mexico fell to 2-2.
Junior guard Obi Agbim once again led the Skyhawks in scoring with 21 points on 7 of 15 shooting from the field and 7 of 8 shooting from the free-throw line. Agbim also had six rebounds.
Junior guard Jhei-R Jones and junior forward Brayden Carter each had 11 points for Fort Lewis.
The Skyhawks struggled to shoot the ball from the 3-point line, going 1 of 16 from beyond the arc. Fort Lewis shot 41% from the field.
Jahcoree Ealy led Eastern New Mexico with 28 points on 11 of 19 shooting overall and 6 of 6 shooting from the free-throw line. The Greyhounds shot 42% from the field and 15% from 3-point range.
Fort Lewis was up 38-24 at halftime before Eastern New Mexico went on a 12-0 run midway through the second half.
The Skyhawks came out on top thanks in part to their rebounding advantage. Fort Lewis out-rebounded Eastern New Mexico 41-34 in a balanced effort with Agbim, junior forward Isaiah Thompson and Jones each finishing with six boards.
“We really found that one of the things that we could do better was rebound,” Pietrack said. “We tried to design a roster that would indicate that I do think we're going to be a better rebounding team, collectively than we've been. A little bit of that is we're big inside, we have depth at the four and our threes are big. We have collective size. We may not have like the tallest guy on the floor at a time but the size is very good.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
