The gymnasium at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood has not been kind to the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team in recent memory.
FLC lost its third consecutive road game against the Cougars with an 84-79 setback Saturday night.
Colorado Christian guard Ross Williams exploded in the second half to finish with a game-high 28 points. He hit brutally difficult 3-pointers, was perfect down the stretch from the foul line and fed teammate Andy Stafford with perfect setup passes for additional layups to secure the big home win for the previously winless Cougars (1-2, 1-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference).
The key stat of the night was 3-point shooting. FLC made only 6-of-20, while Colorado Christian was lights out with 15-of-25.
“When they make 15 out of 25 3s, it’s hard to beat them,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “They made so many, and we couldn’t. Every time we got a little momentum, they hit a 3 and then stuck another. It was disappointing for us.”
Not only did Williams score 28 points, he also had 17 rebounds and five assists.
“I thought we guarded him pretty good, but he made some impossibly tough shots,” Pietrack said. “That’s life on the road in this conference.”
Stafford added another 16 points for the Cougars and had 10 rebounds. The Skyhawks were outrebounded 39-25 in the loss.
Seniors Riley Farris and Will Wittman each scored 15 for FLC (2-1, 1-1 RMAC). Sophomore guard Akuel Kot had 14 points, while junior forward Brenden Boatwright shined with 11 points. Corey Seng added nine points and led the team with five rebounds.
The Skyhawks had led 39-32 at halftime despite an early 16-5 deficit.
Colorado Christian stormed back into the game behind three consecutive 3-pointers from Christian St. Germain to make it 50-49 with 15 minutes to play.
FLC’s lead was 66-62 after a Wittman dunk, but Williams made another contested 3 with 5:40 to go to get within 66-65.
The Skyhawks battled back from a couple more one-basket deficits and would lead 77-74 with two minutes to play after Farris fed a perfect pass to a cutting Wittman for a dunk through a foul.
With the game tied at 78, Williams fed a beautiful pass into Stafford, who made a move to beat his defender and finish a strong layup to give his team an 80-78 lead.
After an FLC turnover, as Wittman fought through contact to get to the basket but it was ruled he had stepped out of bounds, Williams would make two free throws to effectively put the game out of reach with 15 seconds to play.
Now, FLC will prepare for another road trip to the Denver metro area next Friday and Saturday at Regis (1-1, 1-1 RMAC) and No. 8 Colorado School of Mines (4-0, 3-0 RMAC), a team Pietrack said is legitimately a top-five team in all of NCAA Division II basketball.
Mines beat Metro State University-Denver 82-48 earlier this season and took down Regis by 23. It beat UCCS 64-54 on Saturday night.
“It only gets tougher from here,” Pietrack said. “We will play Colorado Christian again this year at home (Jan. 8), and we look forward to that game.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
