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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Garbrah 12.21
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC freshman Junior Garbrah scored 15 points in Saturday's victory over Adams State.
76
Adams St. ASC 4-8,1-4 RMAC
90
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 9-2,3-2 RMAC
Adams St. ASC
4-8,1-4 RMAC
76
Final
90
Fort Lewis FLC
9-2,3-2 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Adams St. ASC 46 30 76
Fort Lewis FLC 45 45 90

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

Farris scores season-high 28, FLC tops Adams State to conclude fall semester

DURANGO, Colorado — Saturday's RMAC showdown between the Fort Lewis College men's basketball team and the visiting Adams State University Grizzlies was a pivotal swing game for the Skyhawks.

Needing a win to head into the holiday break with a winning record in the RMAC, the Skyhawks responded to close out 2019 with a 90-76 victory behind a season-high 28 points by redshirt junior forward Riley Farris.

"It's a good victory for us. All these RMAC home games; you've got to get them because the league is so difficult," said Fort Lewis head coach, Bob Pietrack. "Doesn't matter how you get them. If you get a home game, you've got to win it. We took care of business tonight and I really credit Adams State. They always play us hard. This a good, clean rivalry game."

With the victory, FLC improved to 9-2 overall and 3-2 inside the RMAC heading into the spring semester and also got a little revenge against a Grizzlies team (3-8 overall, 1-4 RMAC) that swept the season series in 2018-19.

Leading the charge for the Skyhawks was Farris, who poured in 18 of his 28 points in the first half and finished the evening an economical 10-of-16 from the field while adding seven rebounds and two blocked shots. He has now scored 20 or more points in all 11 games for FLC so far this season and is the third leading scorer in the RMAC at 23.8 points per game.

"With Farris, he had a season-ending injury last year and we didn't know exactly what we were going to get anytime a young man misses a year," Pietrack said. "But he's been special good in the first half of the season and I still feel he's just beginning to be as good as he can be. That's how special talented he is."

Despite the big first half from Farris, the Skyhawks entered the halftime locker room trailing 46-45 after Adams State, led by 25 points from its point guard Juwan Green, closed the half on a 15-4 run over the final 4:55.

ASU shot 16-of-36 (46%) in the first half before the Skyhawks' defense righted the ship in the second half, limiting the Grizzlies to a pedestrian 10-of-29 (34%).

With its defense getting stops, Fort Lewis was able to stretch its lead back out to double-digits at 77-65 with 6:14 remaining in the second half following a 3-pointer by junior point guard Logan Hokanson for three of his nine points.

The freshmen guard tandem of Akuel Kot and Junior Garbrah supplied the secondary firepower for the Skyhawks as Kot, held to 12 points during the South Dakota road trip last weekend, poured in 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting Saturday and Garbrah scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half.

Redshirt sophomore forward Brenden Boatwright had a huge impact in his nine minutes, as well, as he scored seven points, grabbed two steals and finished with a plus-12 rating as he and Farris bullied an undersized ASU front court.

Fort Lewis, after finishing 2018-19 with seven RMAC victories, will now head into the break situated in a tie for fourth place in the RMAC standings at 9-2 overall and 3-2 in conference.

Metropolitan State University of Denver (Friday, January 3) and Chadron State College (Saturday, Jan. 4) are set to make their way to Durango when the 2020 portion of the season tips off. Game times are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

"When we met and had our first team meeting on August 10, before we went on our foreign tour, I told the guys, 'Listen, we have a collection of talented players on our roster. How quickly can we take those names and become a team?' And I really feel as though we have a good team," Pietrack said. "We really focused on this recruiting class that we had the right individuals and I think it's shown in some games. This league is a heavyweight fight. You get hit and you've got to hit back. It's the teams that stay together, that have the right human beings on the roster, that propel themselves into the league standings as (the season) goes…I think now we'll be older, more experienced and ready for the second semester."
 
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