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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Danny Garrick 11.16
Peyton Rutkowski
FLC senior Danny Garrick had 16 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's win over Embry-Riddle.
72
Embry-Riddle (AZ) ERAUAZ 0-2
81
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 4-0,0-0 RMAC
Embry-Riddle (AZ) ERAUAZ
0-2
72
Final
81
Fort Lewis FLC
4-0,0-0 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Embry-Riddle (AZ) ERAUAZ 31 41 72
Fort Lewis FLC 41 40 81

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

Garrick's double-double highlights Skyhawks' 81-72 win over Embry-Riddle

DURANGO, Colorado — It wasn't always pretty, but the Fort Lewis College men's basketball remained undefeated Saturday, edging out Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University by an 81-72 final inside Whalen Gymnasium to cap the Fort Lewis College Classic.

Fort Lewis (4-0 overall) was able to fend off a pesky Eagles team from the NAIA ranks despite starting point guard Logan Hokanson still battling a nagging wrist injury and the loss of backup point guard Cesar Molina, who exited the game at the 13:31 mark of the second half with an ankle injury.

At the time of Molina's injury, occurring after the junior stole a pass and cashed in the transition layup, FLC held a 61-44. That lead would be whittled down back to four at 72-68 with 1:59 remaining.

"We obviously didn't play as well as we would have liked (Saturday) and when Cesar got hurt, it really took the air out of our team," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "We were just starting to get going. But there were still a lot of positives from tonight."

One of those positives was the play of senior Danny Garrick, who recorded his first double-double as a Skyhawk with 16 points and a season-high 11 rebounds from the shooting guard spot.

Garrick's biggest basket of the game came just after the Eagles had cut the deficit to four as the Parker, Colorado native drilled one of his four 3-pointers on the evening at the 1:34 mark to halt the ERAU run.

"Danny had the shot of the game," Pietrack said. "He hit that bomb and that was kind of the difference, as you'd expect a senior to do."

Garrick was one of three Skyhawks to finish in double-figures as redshirt junior Riley Farris produced his fourth straight 20-point game with a team-high 25 points, 18 coming in the second half, and freshman guard Akuel Kot added 12 points.

Junior forward Will Wittman tallied eight points, three rebounds and three assists and true freshman Junior Garbrah filled in admirably in Molina's absence with nine points.

"It's the essence of team. When one man goes down, another one has to step up," Pietrack said of Garbrah. "Junior Garbrah is going to have to grow up quick right now because we're going to need him and his presence. He's had a really nice start to his career, but he's going to have to play at the level we know he's capable of and be really consistent with it."

As a team, Fort Lewis shot 42% from the floor on Saturday (24-of-57) to the Eagles' 45% (28-of-62), but made up for it by going 24-of-32 (75%) from the foul line compared to ERAU's dismal 8-of-16 (50%).

The Skyhawks will now prepare for a quick turnaround as they are set to continued their eight-game home stand at 7 p.m. Wednesday when they host the University of the Southwest.

FLC beat the Mustangs by a 65-62 final last season when the two teams clashed.

 "They're a very good basketball team, they've played some really good competition up to this point, and they played us in a really tight game here last year, so we need to figure out a way to quickly get healthy," said Pietrack of the Mustangs. "That'll be our main focus as head toward Wednesday since that's a very quick turnaround."
 
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