After they had their first three scheduled games of the 2020-21 season canceled or postponed, the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team was excited for any opportunity to compete. The Skyhawks were ready when that chance arrived.
In a game that did not count toward the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings, FLC welcomed Western Colorado University into Whalen Gymnasium on Saturday night. FLC stormed out to a 17-point halftime lead and would go on to secure an 89-69 victory.
With the win, FLC sixth-year head coach Bob Pietrack passed Don Whalen for most career victories as an FLC head coach with his 106th win. He is now seven behind Jim Cross for the third-most in FLC history. Bob Hofman holds the record with 359. Pietrack was an assistant to Hofman for 11 seasons after he played for Hofman’s Skyhawks for four seasons.
“It does mean a lot to me. I never had the opportunity to meet Don Whalen personally, but we share a common bond in that we love Fort Lewis with all of our heart,” Pietrack said. “He spent 29 years on our campus in numerous roles, and one of his roles was basketball coach. It does mean something to me to be in the same breath as him. I met my wife in the building that bears his name. Being in love with Fort Lewis the way I am, to be anywhere near Don Whalen is special to me.”
Saturday night’s win came in front of no fans as the season began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans who watched on the Skyhawks’ live internet stream of the game saw plenty of highlight reel plays and strong ball movement, as FLC finished with 18 assists as a team.
“We’ve been dying to play basketball,” Pietrack said. “Over the last 21 years I’ve been in our building a lot, and I’ve never quite seen it like that, but I will say this: we can’t thank President Tom Stritikus enough, our athletic administration enough for putting us in the very best position possible. Our testing on campus has been No. 1 in the league, our athletic department made every effort to make sure the environment was a college game, so our hats off to them. In return, we played as hard as we could.”
New addition Dunnell “Scottie” Stafford scored a team-high 18 points and had three rebounds and two assists without turning the ball over. In 24 minutes of action, he was 8-of-11 shooting from the field.
“We have high hopes. He was the highlight of our signing class, and he needed a game really bad,” Pietrack said. “You could tell about three minutes into him playing, ‘Oh boy, he’s going to be a good player in our league.’ He’s unselfish, he was efficient, great leader, played multiple positions and didn’t turn the ball over. Really happy with Scottie and his ability, and we will keep finding ways to fit him in better. For the first night for him to come in and do that, 18 points in 23 minutes, really happy with him.”
Senior forward Riley Farris, a preseason All-American, had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. He nearly made it a triple-double, as he had eight assists to only two turnovers, and he blocked a shot. Farris displayed great vision in the post, turning down some of his usual shots to find players such as Stafford and Corey Seng cutting to the basket.
Seng finished with 15 points for FLC on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting. Sophomore guard Akuel Kot had a fantastic game with 17 points, three steals and two assists. Cesar Molina, in his return from a broken leg suffered last season, added 10 points on 4-fo-4 shooting, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range.
‘Really happy with everybody,” Pietrack said. “For the first time in two years, we were healthy going into an RMAC basketball game. I think our depth and how well everybody played together was the difference in the game.”
FLC was able to bring in 35 rebounds, made 17-of-19 free throws and shot 53.2% from the field overall. FLC forced Western Colorado into 18 turnovers compared to 16 assists.
“Western is one of the better scoring teams in our league. They are a hard scout, and we only had 48 hours to prepare because of the schedule changes,” Pietrack said. “We wanted to set the tone defensively, and I thought we did. To their credit, in the second half they made some tough shots.”
Ehrlin Jackson led the Mountaineers with 18 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. Cole Sienknecht had 15 points, seven assists and four rebounds in the loss.
The teams will play again Tuesday night in Gunnision in a game that will count toward conference standings.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
