Rasmus Bach didn’t have a point midway through the second half in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference road game. Somehow, it didn’t matter for the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team.
The No. 19 Skyhawks went to Colorado State University-Pueblo and held off a late comeback from the ThunderWolves to secure a 85-69 win Friday in Pueblo.
FLC (4-1, 1-0 RMAC) led by as many as 15 in the second half thanks to an 11-4 run out of halftime. But CSU-Pueblo (3-4, 0-1 RMAC) went on a 10-0 run of its own that it extended to 16-4 and cut the FLC lead down to one point with 4 minutes, 32 seconds to play. From there, the Fort Lewis seniors took over the game. After Riley Farris missed a 3-point shot, FLC senior guard Kane Martinez chased down an offensive rebound and quickly passed to Bach, who drilled a 3-pointer to put FLC up 71-67 with 3:41 to go. The Bach basket was his only make from the field in the game, as he finished 1-of-9 shooting and 1-of-5 from 3. But the RMAC Preseason Player of the Year made 6-of-6 free throws in the second half and finished with nine points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
“These RMAC road games are so darn hard,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “We had a little bit of a gap, and the home team made a run. I’m happy with our seniors for sticking with it, especially DJ Miles, Daniel Hernandez and Rasmus Bach.”
FLC junior Marquel Beasley led the team with 16 points and eight rebounds. He was 7-of-13 shooting. Miles finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, and Hernandez added 14 points with a 3-of-6 shooting performance from behind the 3-point line.
Brandon Wilson was huge for FLC in the first half. He made his first five shots and scored 10 of the team’s first 17 points.
“Brandon has played really good this season to this point,” Pietrack said. “He is battling a chest cold, and we didn’t know how much he would play tonight. He had 14 points and eight rebounds without a turnover. He plays the game the right way and got enormous rebounds. He’s one of five seniors on this team, and we’re relying on their leadership.”
FLC didn’t plan on facing CSU-Pueblo’s Mark Williams, who had missed the ThunderWolves’ previous six games with a knee injury. Williams returned in a big way Friday with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting. He also had four rebounds.
“Mark Williams made a big difference for them,” Pietrack said. “He hadn’t played all year. I thought he was done for the season, and all of a sudden he’s out there.”
FLC received 10 points off the bench from Farris. The Skyhawks outrebounded the ThunderWolves 43-32 and scored 18 second-chance points compared to six for CSU-Pueblo.
Bach was defended well all night, and his early shots didn’t fall, but the senior star never hung his head.
“He gets so much attention defensive because of who he is, but he was really patient tonight,” Pietrack said of Bach. “He scored all of his points in the final 10 minutes.”
Now that RMAC play has begun, the Skyhawks have to be ready to play on back-to-back nights, and the first challenge in that format will come at 7 p.m. Saturday at New Mexico Highlands University.
“That makes it such a tough, tough league,” Pietrack said of the schedule. “No days off or one day of prep, it’s back on the bus for three hours, get in late, scout and do it all again. All the games count the same in league, and it’s onto Highlands now.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
