The Skyhawks men’s basketball team had some struggles to end the regular season, going 3-4 in their last seven regular season games.
But Fort Lewis College looks like it saved its best play for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament. No. 6 seed FLC dominated No. 3 Colorado Mesa 89-65 in Grand Junction on Tuesday night to advance to the tournament semifinals.
Colorado Mesa and FLC met on Feb. 13 in Durango and the Mavericks came away victorious 93-83. Colorado Mesa destroyed FLC on the boards, outrebounding the Skyhawks 59-23. That was enough for the Mavericks, despite committing 29 turnovers.
On Tuesday night, the Mavericks committed 19 turnovers but only outrebounded FLC 41-33. FLC’s offense was terrific, whether it was in the half court or in transition. The Skyhawks had 21 assists and shot 46% from 3-point range, both marks were second best for the season.
“The first time we played them, we wanted to go really small and pressure them,” FLC head coach Jordan Mast said. “We got great pressure, we turned them over but the flip side was they crushed us on the glass. So (this game) we wanted to be more strategic. When they went big, we went big and sacrificed a little pressure and to play more man-to-man full-court then worrying about trapping so much. Our guys did a great job … our message is we don't have to go crazy; we're a pretty good defensive team.”
FLC improved to 19-11 overall after it shot 51% from the field and 64% from the free-throw line. Redshirt freshman Stewart Erhart led the Skyhawks with 23 points on 9-12 shooting from the field, 4-5 from 3-point range and 1-1 from the free-throw line along with six steals. Five Skyhawks scored between nine and 11 points.
Colorado Mesa fell to 19-10 overall after it shot 30% from the field, 36% from 3-point range and 73% from the free-throw line. Ty Allred led the Mavericks with 17 points on 4-13 shooting from the field, 2-5 from 3-point range and 7-8 from the free-throw line.
The Skyhawks started strong with some forced turnovers and finishes inside. Junior forward Cassius Carmichael had a nice reverse finish to put FLC up 7-2 with 16:15 left. Colorado Mesa had a response with two 3-pointers by Allred to cut FLC’s lead to 9-8.
FLC forced a lot of turnovers in the first matchup against the Mavericks and continued to do that early in the first half. The difference was FLC was a lot more active on the boards, led by Carmichael’s hustle.
Colorado Mesa took its first lead of the night with a steal and score to go up 16-15 with 9:45 left. The Skyhawks had some good looks but couldn’t knock them down while the Mavericks got to the free-throw line.
The Skyhawks retook control with their defense. Erhart had multiple steals, including a strip of Yaak Yaak, and Erhart had an acrobatic finish in transition. Erhart had 14 points and three steals as the Skyhawks led 28-18 with six minutes left in the half.
“When we watched film back, we shot so many quick ones that we felt if we just took our time and really executed, we're going to get wide-open ones,” Mast said. “He (Erhart) just happened to be the guy that was wide-open. The message we've been sending to him is he's a guard, he's so good defensively and we can't get him off the floor. The next level to his game is making shots and he works so hard. It's not something we're asking him to do that he can't do. We see it every day; he just hasn't shot a great percentage this year for whatever reason. Tonight, he put it together.”
FLC really moved the ball well in the first half. No one had the ball too well and tried to do too much in isolation. Freshman guard AJ Riggs hit two corner 3-pointers off good ball movement to put the Skyhawks up 38-25 with three minutes left in the first. FLC led 42-32 at half.
Colorado Mesa started the second half on a 6-0 run. Honeywell was fouled on a 3-pointer and then made one in transition after Johnson was blocked by Yaak.
The Skyhawks struggled offensively early in the second. Multiple air balls were shot from 3-point range and FLC struggled to finish over the size of the Mavericks’ bigs. Erhart scored in transition for FLC’s first points more than five minutes into the second to make it 44-38.
“We were really executing against their zone,” Mast said. “We didn't think they would try to guard us man. Then they went man and it kind of threw us. We went back to just trying to go one-on-one … So we settled down at a time out, got back to getting great paint touches, hit a few threes and then we were right back to where we wanted to go.”
After struggling to score for five minutes, FLC caught fire from 3-point range. The Skyhawks hit four consecutive from downtown to go on a 12-0 run and lead 56-40 with 11:50 to go.
Last time against Colorado Mesa, the Skyhawks would’ve given up an offensive rebound or two during that run. But the Skyhawks rebounded beautifully to keep the Mavericks off the scoreboard.
The pace picked up in the middle of the second half and FLC found a lot of success in transition. After a great block on one end, senior forward Chuol Deng was fouled on the other, made both free throws and led 70-49 with 6:40 left.
FLC led by as many as 28 as the Mavericks couldn’t get anything going against the feisty Skyhawks defense.
The Skyhawks will play No. 2 Regis on Friday at 5 p.m. in Golden on the campus of No. 1 seed Colorado School of Mines. FLC lost a heartbreaker at the buzzer at home against Regis 90-89 on Dec. 7.
Mast is excited to possibly get revenge against Regis in a game he thinks will be fast paced with a bunch of guards.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
