Without its superstar for much of the game, Fort Lewis College had a 46-41 lead with 14 minutes, 11 seconds to play in a tough place to win. An ice-cold shooting slump and the loss of Beasley became too much to overcome down the stretch.
In a rematch of last year’s Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament championship game, Regis (12-6, 9-3 RMAC) once again came out on top of the FLC men’s basketball team (9-9, 4-8 RMAC). Behind a 49-30 rebounding advantage and with the Skyhawks without Beasley for the game’s final 8:10, the Regis Rangers claimed a 78-70 home win in Denver.
“Rebounding was the story of the game,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “Marquel Beasley plays only 14 minutes, and he’s the best rebounder in the game. When you’re playing a team as good as Regis, you can’t make as many mistakes as we did and not rebound like that.”
Beasley fouled out with only two points and five rebounds in 14 minutes on the floor. The senior forward entered the game as the team’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game, and FLC has played the last 12 games without Riley Farris, who is out for the season after averaging more than 12 points per game early on. Without their go-to option, the Skyhawks had a stretch of nearly four minutes without a point late in the second half, and it proved costly.
“Marquel has been in foul trouble a lot,” Pietrack said. “Marquel and Otas (Iyekekpolor) are in foul trouble constantly, especially on the road it seems like it’s even worse. It’s really hard to get any rhythm when you have an all-league player and every time we come up here he has five fouls and he’s out.”
Regis went on runs of 10-0 and 12-2 and eventually took a 72-59 lead with 1:30 to play before FLC tried desperately to get back into the game in the end.
The Skyhawks held the RMAC Preseason Player of the Year Jarrett Brodbeck to only seven points on 2-of-9 shooting. Star guard Christian Little had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Rangers. It was freshman Tony Rocak who burned FLC off the bench for 17 points and 13 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. He helped the Rangers snag 19 offensive rebounds in the game.
“We put a lot of time and effort into Brodbeck and Little and didn’t double team the post at all tonight,” Pietrack said. “Tip your cap and say good job. (Rocak) was an absolute man in there and outplayed our bigs no doubt.”
Iyekekpolor, who also had early foul trouble but played well around it, finished with 17 points for the Skyhawks. He added four rebounds. Kireed Johnson finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Will Wittman scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting that included 4-of-6 from 3. Wittman scored 11 in the first half. Alex Semadeni finished with 11 points and five rebounds.
FLC was 11-of-25 from 3-point range and 11-of-16 at the foul line. The Rangers made 20-of-29 foul shots.
The Skyhawks will have to regroup to salvage a road split and remain in the conference tournament hunt, as only the top-eight teams in the standings qualify for the tournament. FLC will face Colorado Christian University (4-14, 2-10 RMAC) at 7 p.m. Saturday in Lakewood.
“It’s critical for us. We’ve got 10 games to go, and we know we gotta win the majority of them, if not all of them,” Pietrack said. “Every game is a playoff game for us the rest of the way.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
