Box score
 
SPEARFISH, S.D. – An old wives' tale says lightning never strikes the same place twice. Fort Lewis men's basketball player Nick Tomsick has already proved that theory false, having sent FLC to eventual overtime wins over Dixie State and Colorado State-Pueblo earlier this season by canning three-pointers at the regulation buzzer.
 
Tonight, at Black Hills State's Young Center, he did it again, this time lifting Fort Lewis to a 65-63 win  over the host Yellow Jackets with a three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left on the clock.
 
“It didn't even hit the rim,” said FLC Associate Head Coach Bob Pietrack.  “That was a big shot by Nick.”
 
Black Hills State's Tanner Adler made two free throws with 6.7 seconds left to give the Yellow Jackets a 63-62 lead. BHSU had overcome a five-point FLC lead down the stretch and were poised for their biggest Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win ever.
 
But just as radio and television towers can get struck by lightning dozens of times in the same storm, Tomsick proved that he, too, can electrify over and over again.
 
“Coach (Bob) Hofman called it in a time out, we ran it and he made it,” said Pietrack. “Nick took a handoff and made the shot … the exact same play we ran against Dixie State (an FLC 89-82 win at the Colorado Mesa Thanksgiving Classic).
 
“Overall, it's another gutsy win on the road being so far from home,” Pietrack added. “We've been gone since Wednesday morning, which makes this trip a lot longer. It's tough on the road and we're 4-0 in league on the road. It's a huge step in the right direction for us.”
 
Nearly lost in the last-second drama was the fact that the Skyhawks sport a 9-1 overall record (6-1 RMAC) for the first time in school history.
 
Also lost were great second half comebacks by each team.
 
Trailing by eight three minutes into the second stanza, FLC's Alex Herrera was whistled for a foul. Hofman picked up a rare technical afterwards, sending Adler to the line for a pair of free throws. Adler missed the first, but connected on the second to give BHSU its biggest lead of the game at nine, 40-31.
 
Rather than wilt under pressure, the Skyhawks went on a 9-0 run in the next three minutes on a three-pointer by Wes McKenzie, a jumper in the paint by Alex Herrera, a trey by Tomsick and a 1-of-2 trip to the line by Herrera.
 
The two teams traded buckets for the majority of the last 13 minutes, but FLC twice stretched the lead to five. The last happened with 2:26 remaining when Marcus Ayala's fastbreak layup put FLC on top 60-55. Even with less than a minute remaining, the Skyhawks still led by four at 62-58.
 
But Adler went off in the final minute, scoring five of his game-high 26 points on a three-pointer and a pair of free throws in the waning moments that completed his team's comeback and gave the home faithful something to cheer about and a 63-62 lead.
 
“We almost gave it back to them after we'd fought so hard to take the lead back,” said Pietrack.
 
But Tomsick, who took a handoff from Ayala, had different plans. Just ask Dixie State or Colorado State-Pueblo, two other teams struck by the junior's lightning.
 
Tomsick wasn't alone. McKenzie chipped in nine points, including his timely trey to ignite FLC's second half comeback.

Herrera notched another double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The sophomore center was nearly perfect offensively, going 5-of-7 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line. He also blocked five shots.
 
“Alex was phenomenal,” Pietrack said of the young big man that local fans have nicknamed “Chief” since his prep career at nearby Ignacio High School.
 
Chief's inside dominance helped the Skyhawks build a 36-25 advantage in rebounding.
 
“But we didn't get the big rebounds,” Pietrack added, citing several second-half moments in which BHSU scrambled for key caroms to keep their possessions alive.
 
“A ton of credit to Black Hills,” he said. “They're really well-coached, play hard and have great fans.”
 
Adler netted his 26 points through timely three-point shooting (4-of-6) and free throws (6-of-7) to lead BHSU (3-9, 2-6).
 
Brady Bisgaard added 11 points as the only other Yellow Jacket in double digits.
 
Black Hills State actually had more field goals (23-19), more three-pointers (8-7), shot better from the field (44.2 to 40.2 percent) and better from behind the arc (40 to 33.3 percent) than FLC did.
 
But free throw shooting made all the difference. Fort Lewis blistered the nets with a 20-of-22 night from the charity stripe (91 percent), while Black Hills State struggled to a 9-of-15 effort (60 percent) from the line.
 
The game was the first-ever between FLC and Black Hills State, which joined the RMAC this past summer.
 
FLC returns home next weekend to host New Mexico Highlands (5-7, 3-5) on Friday and Western New Mexico (4-8, 3-5) on Saturday. Both games start at 7:30 p.m. in Whalen Gymnasium.