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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Riley Farris 1.10
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
Redshirt junior Riley Farris scored a career-high 36 points in Friday's loss to UCCS (File Photo).
70
Fort Lewis FLC 10-4,4-4 RMAC
80
Winner UC-Colo. Springs UCCS 9-4,5-3 RMAC
Fort Lewis FLC
10-4,4-4 RMAC
70
Final
80
UC-Colo. Springs UCCS
9-4,5-3 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLC 34 36 70
UC-Colo. Springs UCCS 41 39 80

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

Farris scores career-high 36, but Skyhawks fall on the road to UCCS

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team received a career night from redshirt junior Riley Farris, but were unable to inch past the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Friday, falling by an 80-70 final inside the Gallogly Events Center.

"I thought the game was decided on the defensive end," said Fort Lewis head coach, Bob Pietrack. "When you give up 80 points, get beat on the rebounds and allow 10 second-chance points, it makes it very hard to win on the road."

The Mountain Lions, they were led by the trio of Blend Avdill (18 points), Alijah Comithier (20 points) and Padiet Wang (25 points).

UCCS finished the evening with 10 second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds and a 15-2 advantage in fastbreak points while shooting 32-of-60 (53%) for the game on their home floor.

"We're still needing to grow, defensively, as a team right now. We know it's not a strength of ours and to (the Mountain Lions) credit, they made some tough shots," Pietrack said. "We're a young team and we just need to figure out ways to put more stretches of good play together."

Farris helped keep the Skyhawks within striking distance, though, pouring in a career-high 36 points, 23 coming in the second half, while shooting a blistering 17-of-23 (74%). The 17 made field goals are tied for the second most in a single game in FLC history, matching Steve Schutz, Jon Cremers, Joe Moore and Lee Walker.

The native of Hutto, Texas now has 14 straight games with 20 or more points to begin the 2019-2020 season and is tied with New Mexico Highlands guard Sammy Barnes-Tompkins as the leading scorer (24.7 points per game) in the RMAC. The 36 points topped Farris' previous career high of 31 set back on Dec. 2, 2017 against New Mexico Highlands University.

"Offensively, Riley is as good as you can possibly be at this level for a post player," Pietrack said. "He's special."

Unfortunately for the Skyhawks (10-4 overall, 4-4 RMAC), the offensive end of the floor was a struggle outside of Farris' monster evening as senior forward Danny Garrick was the only other FLC player in double-figures with 12 points. Garrick added three rebounds and a team-high three steals.

Junior guards Will Wittman and Logan Hokanson followed with six points and five points, respectively.

After trailing by as many as 14 in the first half, and heading into the break down 41-34, the Skyhawks pulled even with the Mountain Lions at 53-53 and again at 55-55 with 12:37 remaining.

The two teams remained deadlocked at 55-55 until the 10:20 mark when the Mountain Lions were able to cash in a pivotal go-ahead basket that sparked a 14-5 run for UCCS to take back control.

"It would have changed the momentum and we had some good looks," said Pietrack of FLC's chances to take the lead. "We didn't get the ball to go in at that point and I thought it was an important moment for us. It's difficult to win games on the road and we need to figure out a way to tighten things up a touch."

The Skyhawks will look to rebound Saturday when they continue their current four-game road swing with a 7:30 p.m. matchup against Colorado School of Mines (10-5 overall, 6-2 RMAC).
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