Fort Lewis 83, Western New Mexico 53
The Skyhawks men's basketball team dominated the Western New Mexico Mustangs, with a 83-53 drubbing at Whalen Gymnasium on Saturday night.
Fort Lewis head coach
Bob Hofman was happy with the team effort on defense. “We've been working on defense and if we play defense like that we'll have a better chance at winning the conference,” Hofman said.
“We came out with a defensive mentality tonight, we wanted to let them know they couldn't score on us,” said point guard Jordan Brooks. Brooks led all scorers, with 20 points and falling just one assist short of his second triple double of the season.
The most important stat of the game was the turnover tally, with Fort Lewis only committing six turnovers to Western New Mexico's 19.
Fort Lewis was able to control the game defensively, starting off the game by holding the Mustangs to only 20 points in the first half, and 9 of 24 shooting, while the Skyhawks shot 50 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes of play.
“We know we can score whenever we want to,” Brooks said, “but we're getting better, and we'll make some trouble in the tournaments.”
The second half did not see a decrease in the defensive intensity put forward by Fort Lewis, limiting the Mustangs to under 30 percent shooting for the half, and 32 percent shooting for the game.
The Skyhawks were able to shoot just over 50 percent from the floor, making 31 of 61 of their shots.
In the paint, the Skyhawks were able to outscore the Mustangs 42-24, feeding center Kirk Archibeque the ball for 10 points. All five starters for the Skyhawks were able to score double-digits, while the bench still accounted for 15 more points.
The high point in terms of momentum in the contest was a high pass from Brooks to DeAndre Lansdowne, who finished with a turn-around dunk with about nine minutes remaining in the game.
Following the dunk, Brooks was able to string together a series of acrobatic lay-ups that also led to extra free throws.
“This was a good team win for us. It is exactly what we are looking for,” said Hofman after the game. With the victory, the Skyhawks improve to 16-4 overall, 7-2 in RMAC play. The Skyhawks also re-take the RMAC west division lead with the win, benefiting from Western State loosing two over the weekend.
On Friday, January 30th, the Skyhawks will be in Las Vegas, New Mexico to face New Mexico Highlands at 8pm, followed by a Saturday night game against CSU Pueblo in Pueblo, Colorado.
