As the regular season comes to a close, the Fort Lewis Men's basketball team finds their hopes of garnering a high seed for the RMAC Shootout post season tournament dim.
The Skyhawks were unable to get by 5-13 Western New Mexico, 89-97 on Thursday in Silver City New Mexico.
With the loss, the Skyhawks move to a third place tie in the RMAC West, behind Mesa State and New Mexico Highlands, but do have two games at hand from the two RMAC West leaders. Thickening the plot, Mesa and Western New Mexico face each other on Friday night in Grand Junction. That is followed by Mesa facing Western State College, the very team Fort Lewis is tied for third place with.
Regardless of how things are broken down though, the Skyhawks need some help if they want to host post season basketball at Whalen gymnasium.
Back to Thursday night; Fort Lewis was unable to help themselves by beating Western State, despite the 30 point effort by sophomore DeAndre Lansdowne in the game. The Skyhawks shot well in the first half, with 18 of 34 shooting, enough to gain 45 points, but the Fort Lewis defense could not stop the Cowboys from shooting for 57 percent and putting up 53 points.
The breakneck offensive pace of the game did squelch off a little though, especially for Western New Mexico, who shot just 39 percent from the field in the second half. With the somewhat low shooting percentage, the Cowboys could not hold onto the lead, as the second half would feature four ties and five lead changes.
There was plenty of drama in the waning moments of the regular season, with the Skyhawks down 85-87, game standout Lansdowne tried to take control of the contest, throwing down a dunk with 47 second remaining in play to tie things up.
Following the dunk, the Cowboys took a time out, then went on the floor and did their best to take as much time off the clock as possible. With only 11 second left, Steve Berrelleza of Western State showed tenacity as he sank the go ahead jump shot to put the Cowboys up 89-87.
The best Fort Lewis could do was a three point shot that ended up missing by Trent Bowman with three second left, and the rebound falling into the hands of Western New Mexico to end the game.
The one state that measured the difference in score turned out to be what is the defining stat in most basketball games; turnover. The Skyhawks committed 17 turnovers, while Western New Mexico kept their mistakes at a minimum, only committing nine turnovers.
The upcoming weekend will define how the postseason looks for Fort Lewis, with most of the RMAC and everyone statistically close to the Skyhawks in action both Friday and Saturday. By the end of the weekend, the Skyhawks will know where they will start their defense of the RMAC Shootout title, with the first game being on Tuesday March 3rd.
