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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Brenden Boatwright 11.20
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC redshirt sophomore Brenden Boatwright had 11 points and 7 rebounds in Wednesday's win (File photo).
86
Southwest (NM) SW 0-2
102
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 5-0,0-0 RMAC
Southwest (NM) SW
0-2
86
Final
102
Fort Lewis FLC
5-0,0-0 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Southwest (NM) SW 35 51 86
Fort Lewis FLC 46 56 102

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

Skyhawks extend win streak to five games with 102-86 win over University of the Southwest

DURANGO, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team kept its win streak rolling Wednesday evening, rolling to a 102-86 victory over the University of the Southwest to collect its fifth straight win to begin the 2019-2020 season.

Wednesday marked the first time this season the Skyhawks (5-0 overall) have cleared the century mark on offense.

"We've played five games in 12 days, which is a test very early even though they've been at home. It's very hard to play five games in 12 days and be super sharp, so I commend our ballclub for being able to get the job done five straight times," said Fort Lewis head coach, Bob Pietrack. "We've really had control in every one of those games. But with that said, we're scoring the basketball at a very high clip, but we really need to work, defensively… We haven't yet been able to have consistent practice and I think that shows up on the defensive end."

FLC rode the hot hand of redshirt junior Riley Farris and junior forward Will Wittman early on as Farris, the reigning RMAC Offensive Player of the Week, poured in 20 of his game-high 22 points in the first half.

Wittman flashed his high motor, scoring 13 of his season-high 19 points in the first half, including four offensive put-backs. He'd finished with seven total rebounds, six on the offensive glass, as Wittman led the charge in a commanding 26-6 advantage the Skyhawks had Wednesday in second-chance points.

"We haven't had that stat go in our favor yet this year, but Will is incredibly important to our team," Pietrack said. "We rebounded the ball better than we have all year."

The fast starts from Wittman and Farris helped the Skyhawks out to a 46-35 lead at the break over the visiting Mustangs (4-5 overall), who were held in check to the turn of 43% shooting through the first 20 minutes (12-of-28).

In the second half, the University of Southwest was unable to creep any closer than nine points the rest of the way, but still managed to hang around thanks to 51 second-half points on 20-of-35 (57%) shooting from the field.

"I can't emphasize enough how much better we have to do, defensively, if we're going to half success in our league," Pietrack said. "Will we win games because we can score? Yeah, but we won't be able to string a lot of games together if we're giving up that many points. It doesn't make a difference the style of the game. We need to dictate the style of the fight."

On the flip side, the Skyhawks scored a season-high 56 points in the second half on 17-of-38 shooting (45%), led by freshman Akuel Kot, who exploded for 19 of his 21 points in the final frame.

Rounding out the five FLC players in double figures were senior guard Danny Garrick with 14 points and redshirt sophomore Brenden Boatwright, who added 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench in his 14 minutes. He and sophomore forward Brendan La Rose, who had three points and two blocked shots, played key minutes in the second half after Farris exited with his third foul.

"I really commend Boatwright and La Rose. We really challenged them this week, our staff challenged those two guys, because we need them," Pietrack said. "I thought both of them played really tough and gave us great minutes."

The Skyhawks will now get the chance to rest up and get back in the gym for practice with nine days off before continuing their home stand at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30 against Park University.

"We'll start preparation for (the RMAC) the next 4-5 days and we're going to work on ourselves, truly," Pietrack said. "We need to get in better shape. To guard, you have to be in incredible shape. And when you play this many games in a row and you're not getting consistent practice, it's a real test with the energy it takes to play college basketball and play it well. We did a nice job with this first segment of the home stand. To come out 5-0, have double-digit leads in all five, we've had different guys step up during it and we've really grown these last 12 days. Now we need to look at how we grow during the next nine days so we can be at our best Nov. 30."
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