Fort Lewis College never led Friday night in a matchup that has haunted the Skyhawks the last two seasons.
In a trip to see Colorado School of Mines at Lockridge Arena in Golden, FLC fell 79-68. The Skyhawks were outrebounded 40-32 and outshot badly from behind the 3-point line.
It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Skyhawks (21-4, 17-3 RMAC) against the Orediggers (19-6, 13-6 RMAC), who beat FLC three times last year to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships, and to end FLC’s season in the NCAA tournament.
“They beat us tonight,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “We didn’t shoot it well enough. We were making a push to comeback, but they had 3s go in that are tough shots that went in. Hey, you can’t win in basketball if you don’t see the ball go through the hoop.”
FLC shot less than 30 percent from the field in the first half and finished at 41 percent, well below its season average. The Skyhawks also missed eight free throws, which Pietrack said won’t win on the road.
FLC senior Rasmus Bach, the RMAC Preseason Player of the Year and winningest player in FLC history, was held to three points on 0-of-5 shooting from the field. He was 3-of-4 at the foul line, and had six rebounds and three assists.
Senior guard Daniel Hernandez, who attacked the basket to get to the foul line seven times, led FLC with 21 points. He finished 8-of-12 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 at the free-throw line.
DJ Miles added 15 points for FLC but shot just 4-of-12 from the field.
FLC was outshot from behind the 3-point line, as the Orediggers made 10-of-22 shots from long range while FLC made only 1-of-7.
“(Bach) missed his first three shots and couldn’t get in a rhythm,” Pietrack said. “We like to post (Bach) up, but they have bigger guards that make it hard to do that. We were atrocious from 3 and 10 percent lower than our normal shooting percentage and we missed eight free throws on the road. Plain and simple, we lost.”
FLC also battled early foul trouble, as RMAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Wilson, FLC’s senior center, picked up two personal fouls in the game’s first five minutes. He didn’t play another minute in the first half and was limited to eight points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes.
“That really hurt us,” Pietrack said of Wilson’s foul trouble. “But I thought (Riley Farris) played hard. It’s just that Wilson is a senior leader for us and we need him in there. We dug a hole too deep, but I am proud of the second-half effort to keep fighting.”
Marquel Beasley had a big game with five blocked shots, but he was held to eight points and three rebounds. He also missed a big dunk attempt that would have cut the Colorado Mines lead to four points with 5:33 to play. FLC never got closer than 61-55 down the stretch before Mines effectively put the game away at the foul line.
Colorado Mines was led by 27 points from Michael Glen, who also had nine rebounds. Luke Schroepfer had 20 points thanks to a 4-of-8 shooting performance from 3. Ben Sonnefeld and Adam Laine each had 10 rebounds for the Orediggers.
With the loss, FLC fell into a tie with Westminster College for first place in the RMAC with two games to play. Westminster will visit Regis in a showdown of two of the league’s top-three teams Saturday. Westminster is not postseason eligible in its final year of a transition period from NAIA to NCAA Division II, but the Griffins, who hold a tiebreaker against FLC, can still win the regular season conference title. Westminster will visit FLC in the regular-season finale Feb. 24 in Durango.
FLC entered the week ranked No. 4 in the South Central Region rankings and was the top-RMAC team in the poll. The top-eight teams make the NCAA tournament.
FLC has clinched the right to host the conference tournament. Before FLC can focus on any of that, it will travel to face Adams State at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Alamosa.
“We gotta play better,” Pietrack said. “We really haven’t played well the last three road games. We were lucky to get a few wins last weekend, but we have to play better Tuesday. We don’t have time to hang our heads. Life on the road in the RMAC is very difficult. We have to play our best game of the year to win on the road Tuesday against a good team.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
