Written By: Durango Herald Sport Staff

February 6th, 2010.  Grand Junction, CO. - The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team fell 87-80 in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference West Division overtime thriller to the 13th-ranked Mesa State Mavericks in Grand Junction on Friday night.

“It was a great college basketball game," FLC head coach Bob Hofman said. “Both teams went out there and competed (Friday night)."

The first half started strong for the Skyhawks as they ran up a nine-point lead in the first five minutes.

Mesa State clawed its way back, compliments of Mike Dominguez, to take a lead of its own, and the game see-sawed back and forth from there with four lead changes overall in the half.

The 'Hawks went into halftime with a 42-41 lead on a jumper by Matt Morris as time expired.

Fort Lewis led for much of the second half before the Mavericks took control. Mesa led by nine with 3:28 left on the clock, but the Skyhawks fought back to tie the game at 74-all to carry the game into overtime.

The comeback fell short in OT, however, as the Mavericks hit their free throws en route to their seven-point victory. “(Friday night) was disappointing. We let them go to the free throw line too much, and we didn't get there enough," Hofman said.

Dominguez, a reverse transfer from Florida International, hit six 3s and scored 22 points in the first half alone. He scored a game-high 35 points.

Matt Billups led Fort Lewis with 21 points, followed by DeAndre Lansdowne and Daniel Steffensen with 19 and 14 points, respectively. Morris scored 10 before fouling out in overtime.

“As a team, we played well together, and as a team we got better from this game," Hofman said. “We are going to learn from it and grow from it."

Fort Lewis, which will play Western State at 8 p.m. today in Gunnison, is 14-5 overall and 8-3 in the conference, 3½ games behind Mesa State for second place in the division.

Mesa State, the top-ranked team in the Central Region, is 18-1 overall and 12-0 RMAC.

heraldsports@durangoherald.com