The Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team ran into a buzzsaw Colorado Christian team that had to shoot 63 percent from 3-point range to narrowly beat the Skyhawks on Friday night. Saturday, a chainsaw might not have been able to penetrate the stout Fort Lewis defense, and the offense brought a buzzsaw of its own.
The No. 16 Skyhawks put on a defensive clinic and had the Orediggers miffed on the offensive end in a 76-59 lockdown of the defending regular season league co-champions.
Kofi Josephs had a career performance for Fort Lewis with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor and 5-for-8 from 3-point range.
“Friday night, we took a real gut punch because we were ready to play and they just made everything,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “(Saturday night), our six seniors and our whole program were determined not to let it happen again, and we answered the bell like champions do.”
Fort Lewis (12-2, 7-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) led for all but five minutes played Saturday night and, when the Skyhawks grabbed the lead, they never gave it back.
Josephs’ effort was huge off the bench with leading scorers Joshua Blaylock and Rasmus Bach taking a back seat for a night. Bach and Blaylock had six points each. Only two Skyhawks finished in double figures with Josephs’ 24 points being the game high. Big man Austin Haldorson added 10. Jared Smith contributed nine points to go along with his night-in-night-out superior energy and effort on defense.
From early on, it was clear Colorado Mines (10-5, 5-4 RMAC) didn’t know what to do with the Fort Lewis defense. Coach Pietrack and the swarming Skyhawks changed up defensive looks often to combat the cerebral nature of the Colorado Mines team. In the midst of trying to figure out what kind of defense Fort Lewis was implementing, the Orediggers went cold and looked confused with the variety of defensive sets.
“They’re such a smart team, and we know that they can recognize and figure out defensive schemes, so we tried to shake it up on them,” Pietrack said. “We changed it up often from zone to man just to try and make them uncomfortable and stay ahead of what they were trying to figure out. When they started to get an idea, we changed it again. We wanted to take our time and get good looks and not give them any at the other end.”
The Skyhawks challenged everything the Orediggers tried to do offensively and held the home team to 40 percent shooting for the duration. In Friday’s loss, it was the 3-point barrage from Colorado Christian that did the Skyhawks in. Saturday, however, Fort Lewis held Colorado Mines to a stingy 23 percent (4-for-17) from long range.
With the defense in shutdown mode, Josephs had a breakout performance. The senior who has overcome two hip surgeries is finally healthy just in time for his final stretch run as a player at Fort Lewis.
“His confidence just keeps growing,” Pietrack said. “He’s fought through so much and has overcome tons of adversity just to be able to play. He’s kept a great attitude, and he fits right in to what we’re doing.”
The Skyhawks have another stiff road test next weekend as they will face Colorado Mesa at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Grand Junction followed by a 7:30 p.m. tip in Salt Lake City on Saturday against Westminster.
jfries@durangoherald.com
