There was a lot of intrigue heading into Thursday night’s men’s basketball game between Fort Lewis and MSU Denver. The Skyhawks were 5-1 since leaving Florida 0-2 to start the season. MSU Denver was 5-1 overall and was picked second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Poll.
Unfortunately for Skyhawks fans eagerly anticipating FLC’s RMAC opener, the Skyhawks came out flat, could never settle into an offensive rhythm and lost 65-48.
MSU Denver jumped out to a 12-0 lead thanks to its size advantage inside and its zone defense. The Roadrunners got the lead up to 28-5. FLC responded and cut the lead to six in the second half before MSU Denver went on a 22-5 run to end all Skyhawks comeback hopes.
“We’ve just got to get better shots offensively,” FLC head coach Jordan Mast said. “Right now we’re defending; we held them to 66 points and we had some bright spots. Right now, we’re defending for 20 to 25 seconds; they’re making us work, we come down and shoot in the first five to 10 seconds and have to do it all over again. When you play that style you better make those shots and we weren’t tonight.”
FLC fell to 5-4 overall and 0-1 in RMAC play after it shot 29% from the field, 22% from 3-point range and 52% from the free-throw line. The 48 points are the worst in program history. The previous record low was 50 in 2013 and 2019.
Senior guard Biko Johnson was the lone Skyhawk in double figures with 13 points on 5-12 shooting from the field and 3-6 from 3-point range. He only played 23 minutes due to foul trouble.
MSU Denver improved to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the RMAC after it shot 49% from the field, 40% from 3-point range and 81% from the free-throw line.
Sufyan Elkannan led the Roadrunners with 16 points off the bench on 5-8 shooting from the field, 4-5 from 3-point range and 2-2 from the free-throw line.
It was a return to Whalen Gymnasium for MSU Denver senior forward Brayden Carter. The former Skyhawk played a key part in FLC’s 29-4 record last year and was third on the team with 10.2 points per game and first on the team with 4.9 rebounds per game.
Carter had no issue with FLC’s smaller front line Thursday night and finished with 12 points on 5-7 shooting from the field, 2-4 from the free-throw line and seven rebounds.
FLC struggled on offense early on against MSU Denver’s zone defense. The Skyhawks weren’t flashing a player to the middle of the zone much and when they did, FLC’s guards didn’t find them. The Skyhawks settled for a lot of 3-point shots early and none were going down.
“Credit to them; it’s something they haven’t run a whole lot of,” Mast said about the Roadrunners’ zone defense. “I don’t know if they saw something or had a different game plan for us but we didn’t prep as much for zone. We thought they would play man-to-man... Maybe they felt they couldn’t do a great job staying in front of us, so they packed it in, made us shoot and to their credit we didn’t shoot it well.”
MSU Denver continued to find success inside. FLC’s lack of size showed and Carter found himself wide open for a slam to put the Roadrunners up 22-4 with 10 minutes to go in the first half.
FLC started to find some offensive success thanks to some good ball movement. Johnson hit two 3-pointers thanks to good ball movement to cut the deficit to 30-18 with four minutes left in the half.
Free throws continued to be an issue for FLC in the first half. The Skyhawks could’ve gotten off to a better start but began the game 4-11 from the charity stripe.
FLC ended the first half on a 17-3 run and trailed 31-22 at halftime. Mast liked how his team got out in transition to stop the MSU Denver zone from setting.
The Skyhawks cut the margin to 36-30 with 16:19 left thanks to a 3-pointer by Allen and Johnson. FLC was crashing the glass on both ends much better than in the first half. FLC took a big loss with 15 minutes to go when Johnson picked up his fourth foul trying to set a back screen.
Turnovers doomed FLC’s comeback attempt in the middle of the second half. Poor passes and dribbling into traffic led to MSU Denver runouts. A 3-pointer by Elkannan off a turnover gave the Roadrunners a 45-34 lead with nine minutes to go.
MSU Denver extended its lead with its zone defense and by attacking the basket. FLC took quick outside shots without much ball movement. MSU Denver penetrated well on offense for trips to the free-throw line or for easy finishes inside. Carter finished an and-one inside to push MSU Denver’s lead to 54-38 with six minutes left.
“They were patient and didn’t settle,” Mast said about MSU Denver. “So if they didn’t get something in there they found someone else and that hurt us. We weren’t doing the same thing.”
FLC plays at home on Saturday against Regis at 3 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
