There are no free wins in the ultra-competitive Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, but Saturday’s matchup with Chadron State was as close as it gets for the No. 21 Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team.
Fort Lewis (17-3, 12-2 RMAC) had nine different players score in a dominant first half in which the Skyhawks shot 63 percent and posted a sparkling 11 assists to two turnovers ratio. The crisp play led to a 49-20 lead at halftime, and the Skyhawks coasted to a 87-64 victory. The win stretched the record for home wins on Bob Hofman Court at Whalen Gymnasium to 28 games.
“We just really wanted to play better in the first half after what happened last night,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said, mentioning the team’s early struggles against Regis before roaring back for a big win. “I thought the boys did that. We came out, knew what we had to do, wanted to finish the home stand right, and we landed a knockout punch pretty early.”
Rasmus Bach had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Daniel Hernandez also had 13 point,s while Joshua Blaylock had 12 and Riley Farris added 11 to lead an impressive bench that outscored Chadron State’s reserves 43-11.
The Skyhawks never trailed, as senior Will Morse got off to a fast start scoring five of the team’s first nine points. The big blow came midway through the opening half when FLC went on a 15-0 run to take complete control with a 29-point lead at halftime.
The wide margin allowed Pietrack to empty the bench, give his starters some extra rest and get some guys in that don’t get a lot of time. Freshman Dontez Thomas came in and scored nine points in 11 minutes for FLC. Fan favorite Donald Poole II from Monte Vista brought the FLC student section to its feet with a couple late baskets. He had four points in 5 minutes of play.
“Any time you can get rest in this league, it’s a good thing,” Bach said. “It’s also great to see guys like Dontez show what he’s capable of. We see it in practice, but it’s nice for them to be able to show everyone what they can do because we already know how good these guys are.”
Darius Polley led all scorers with 26 points for Chadron State (2-15, 2-11 RMAC).
The first-place Skyhawks have a half-game lead over Colorado Mines in the RMAC standings and will get an extra day of rest before heading to Colorado Christian for a 3 p.m. game Saturday. Colorado Mines beat CSU-Pueblo 80-58 on Saturday night. FLC, Mines and CSU-Pueblo entered the weekend in a three-way tie for first place.
“It’ll be nice to get some good practice in before we head to Denver,” Pietrack said. “The road games right now are so hard to win. We’ll be fully rested and we’ll get a full scout in, which is critical this time of year.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
