Alex Semadeni saved the game for the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball. In the process, he may have saved the Skyhawks’ season.
The fifth-year senior from Fort Collins made three 3-pointers in the final 32 seconds of regulation to will FLC into overtime at Chadron State College in Nebraska. In overtime, he scored another 10 points, including six free throws in the final 10 seconds to knock off a hot Eagles team in their home arena. His 37 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals helped send FLC to a 100-88 overtime win, its first win in four overtime games in the first seven Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference contests.
“We know we’re a good team,” Semadeni said. “We’ve had some unfortunate sequences, mental lapses and a couple unlucky bounces. It’s unbelievable we’ve played four overtime games already in conference play. We have a quote that we use that says, ‘We have to have the confidence of a top team in the league with the desperation of a team that really needs a win.’ We played that way, and it worked to our advantage.
“We’re going to try to take this win and start something. It’s Fort Lewis College basketball, and we have an expectation of how good we want to be.”
Missed free throws looked as though they would cost FLC again late in regulation. FLC (7-6, 2-5 RMAC) was down 75-70 with two minutes to play, but Marquel Beasley scored five consecutive points to help keep FLC alive before he fouled out in the final minute of the second half.
Chadron State (6-7, 4-3 RMAC) stretched its lead to 78-72 after Colby Jackson made two free throws, as he got an offensive rebound with one second left on the shot clock. As Jackson went back up with the ball, Beasley was called for a foul at the shot-clock buzzer with 45.5 seconds to play.
Semadeni raced down the floor and made a 3 to make it a one-possession game. FLC appeared to potentially take the ball away from Chadron State twice on the ensuing possession, but Jackson was allowed to go to the foul line for another two shots. He made 1-of-2, and the Eagles led 79-75 with 30 seconds to play.
The next trip down the floor, Semadeni was left unguarded in the corner near the Skyhawks’ bench, and he made a 3 through contact, though no foul was called, to make it only a 79-78 deficit.
With 11.1 seconds to go, Jackson made two more free throws to restore a three-point Chadron lead.
FLC quickly moved the ball down the floor, and Kireed Johnson put up a 3-point shot that went off the rim. Semadeni grabbed the offensive rebound, dribbled out to the 3-point line and chucked a desperation 3 at the buzzer that was pure to send the game to overtime tied 81-81.
“I just wanted to get the board. I didn’t know how much time was left,” Semadeni said. “I tried to escape, dribble out and ran to the 3-point line. I took my shot. The guys were telling me there were two other people wide open on the play. I just had the confidence to put it up. It was kind of unbelievable.”
Semadeni believed he was fouled on both of his final 3s in regulation but didn’t get a call. FLC head coach Bob Pietrack called the buzzer-beater “an all-time great Fort Lewis basketball moment.”
“Regardless of our record, we’ve been talking about there still being great moments to be had in our season,” Pietrack said. “We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity that’s out of our control. This was a great moment.
“Semadeni is a senior that wants to win so bad. He’s a true captain, a fifth-year guy. It couldn’t happen to a better guy – someone who works so hard, is so selfless. To have a moment like that in your career is so special. They can never take that moment away from our team and Semadeni.”
With Beasley and fellow big man Otas Iyekekpolor not available in overtime after they fouled out, Fort Lewis turned to redshirt freshman forward Brendan Boatwright to play center, and he came up huge with three rebounds and six points.
“Boatwright hadn’t played in like 40 minutes, and he helped a ton in overtime,” Pietrack said. “To come in and help like that, it was the essence of a team win. It’s what we needed.”
A.J. Sparks, who had missed four consecutive free throws near the end of regulation, got overtime started with a traditional three-point play. Boatwright scored four consecutive points, and FLC had an 88-83 lead with 3:10 to play. FLC got big stops with interior defense, but the lead was only 89-86 with 1:15 to play.
Boatwright got a rebound on a missed free throw from Adoum Mbang that proved crucial, and Semadeni drew contact and went to the foul line and made two free throws of his own to stretch the lead to 91-86, as he reached 30 points in the process. Boatwright added two more free throws a moment later to give FLC a 93-86 lead with 27.8 seconds to go in overtime.
With FLC up 94-88, Semadeni controlled a rebound and was quickly fouled with 10 seconds to play. He ran to the FLC bench and gave his teammates high-fives, while Chadron State head coach Houston Reed was whistled for a technical foul on the Chadron bench. Semadeni made two technical free throws, then made the first of two free throws for the personal foul. Between those, Chadron State start Diontae Champion was given a technical, and Semadeni made another two technical free throws before he made it a 6-for-6 trip to the line with his final personal foul free throw. That finished the game.
Beasley scored 14 points and had six rebounds for FLC. Iyekekpolor added 13 points. Mbang led Chadron State with 21 points and six rebounds. Jackson finished with 14 points, while Champion had 19 points and five rebounds.
FLC will return home to face University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (8-5, 5-2 RMAC) and Colorado School of Mines (10-3, 7-0 RMAC) in the first of four consecutive home games. It will be a crucial stretch for FLC to try to get back into the mix for a spot in the eight-team conference tournament.
“We stuck in there and kept fighting after all the blows we’ve taken,” Pietrack said. “To go to overtime again after we’ve dropped three overtime games before, to have the courage to look the storm in the eye on the road on the back end of the weekend and win in overtime, it’s outstanding.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
