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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Farris and Garrick 11.10
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC redshirt junior Riley Farris (No. 42) and senior Danny Garrick (No. 5).
78
Western N.M. WNMU 0-1,0-0 Lone Star
91
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 1-0,0-0 RMAC
Western N.M. WNMU
0-1,0-0 Lone Star
78
Final
91
Fort Lewis FLC
1-0,0-0 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Western N.M. WNMU 44 34 78
Fort Lewis FLC 47 44 91

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Farris, Molina help lift Skyhawks to season-opening win over Western New Mexico

DURANGO, Colorado — A revamped Fort Lewis College men's basketball team had some familiar faces come up big on Saturday afternoon, helping the Skyhawks to a 91-78 victory over Western New Mexico University to open the 2019-2020 season.

Serving as tournament hosts for the Conference Challenge against the neighboring Lonestar Conference, Fort Lewis (1-0 overall) rode a 26-point effort from redshirt junior forward Riley Farris and an electric performance off the bench from redshirt-junior guard Cesar Molina, who was 6-of-7 from the field for 13 points in his 21 minutes.

"Farris was special all night and Molina, a program guy who has been here all four years, had his best game in a Fort Lewis uniform," said Fort Lewis head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "It was a good night for us."

Farris, back healthy after being limited to six games due to injury in 2018-19, poured in 16 of his game-high 26 points in the first half to help FLC out to a 47-44 lead at the break.
"Our coaching staff knew how bad we needed Farris last year when he got hurt. You can't just replace All-Region talent and that's what he is," Pietrack said.

Western New Mexico (0-1 overall) was able to stay in contact in large part to the play of guard Elijah Holifield as he tallied 20 of his 24 points in the opening 20 minutes before the Skyhawks were able to put the clamps on in the second half.

FLC pushed its lead to double-digits at 73-63 with 8:32 remaining on a 3-pointer by Molina, and led by as many as 15 points in the second half to methodically polish off the 91-78 final.

"We took care of the ball better during that stretch and we finished the night shooting 57% from the field, so we weren't missing many shots," Pietrack said. "We made 3-pointers (9-of-16) and our free throws (28-of-33, 85%) and that was probably the difference for us."

Joining Farris and Molina in double-figures for the Skyhawks on Saturday were a pair of newcomers in senior transfer Danny Garrick, who finished with 17 points on 4-of-9 shooting, and true freshman Akuel Kot.

Kot rallied back from early foul trouble to post a final line of 14 points, four rebounds and two steals in his first collegiate start.

"If that's Game One of your career, it's going to be an exciting career for him," Pietrack said of Kot. "He has the chance to be a really special player and he's still learning."

The Skyhawks will look to build off Saturday's momentum when they close out the Conference Challenge with a 4 p.m. game Sunday against another stout Lonestar foe in Eastern New Mexico University.

"It'll be extremely hard (Sunday) to combat their size and quickness," Pietrack said of the Greyhounds, who lost a tight overtime game in Saturday's final game to New Mexico Highlands. "We need to play better than we did (Saturday). We can't turn the ball over 13 times against a team like Eastern New Mexico. They are truly a regional type team that, as the season goes on, we're going to need to play teams like that. It's good to be able to play that game early."
 
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