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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Akuel Kot 1.24
Peyton Rutkowski
Freshman Akuel Kot scored 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting in Friday's win over Regis.
79
Regis (CO) Regis 10-8,5-7 RMAC
80
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 12-6,6-6 RMAC
Regis (CO) Regis
10-8,5-7 RMAC
79
Final
80
Fort Lewis FLC
12-6,6-6 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Regis (CO) Regis 39 40 79
Fort Lewis FLC 35 45 80

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

FLC tips-off four game home stand with 80-79, come-from-behind win over Regis

DURANGO, Colorado — Locked in the middle of the logjammed RMAC standings, the Fort Lewis College men's basketball team earned a crucial come-from-behind win on Friday, staving off Regis University by an 80-79 final to open a four-game home stand.

"We really needed that game. We still have to go to their place, so couldn't drop a home one," said Fort Lewis head coach, Bob Pietrack. "(Regis) is one of the teams fighting to get in (to the RMAC Tournament) just like us so it was really important for us to get it. I thought it was a really good college basketball game and we were just a point better tonight."

Fort Lewis improves to 12-6 overall and back to .500 in the RMAC at 6-6, already matching last year's win total with 10 games remaining on the schedule.

Win No. 12 would not come easy, though, as FLC faced a 10-point deficit against the Rangers (10-8 overall, 5-7 RMAC) on two occasions in the first half, the latest coming at 35-25 with 4:11 remaining, before whittling the deficit down to 39-35 at the break.

Freshman guard Akuel Kot was a sparkplug off the bench as he dropped in 12 of his 23 points in the first half. It was his first 20-point game since exploding for 26 in a win over CSU-Pueblo back on Dec. 7.

Kot finished an economical 7-of-10 from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line to provide the Skyhawks a key secondary scoring to compliment redshirt junior Riley Farris, who notched his third double-double of the season with a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds.

"I started with free throws and those are easy buckets," said Kot when asked what jumpstarted his performance. "Once I get clicking, that's when I can score from wherever."

After trailing by as nine in the second half at 57-48, the Skyhawks again went back to work by answering with a 10-1 run to even the score again at 58-58.

Junior forward Will Wittman got the run started with a deep trey from the wing for three of his nine points. Wittman added six rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots in his 24 minutes.
The Skyhawks would methodically build a nine-point lead of their own at 74-65, courtesy of a Kot 3-pointer, with 4:37 remaining. But they'd have to fight off one final push from the Rangers, who cut the deficit back down to three with 46 ticks remaining.

Regis got the ball back with 15 seconds remaining with a chance to tie, but had a Brian Dawson 3-pointer hit front iron. Christian Little corralled the rebound and hit a put-back with less than a second to go, but a successful in-bounds on the ensuing possession clinched the 80-79 victory for FLC.

"There was that stretch in the second half under 10 minutes where, when we were on the road, we were in those exact same scenarios," Pietrack said. "Tonight, because we had learned, we were ready to win that game. I was really, really pleased with our team."

As a team, the Skyhawks finished the evening 27-of-56 from the field (48%), including a blistering 16-of-28 (57%) during their second-half comeback. Defensively, FLC tightened up in the second half as it held Regis to 44% shooting (14-of-32).

Junior guard Corey Seng continued to shine in his role off the bench, finishing with four points and two steals in 16 minutes.

"Seng has had four really good games in a row. We've found something there. Any time you get a transfer, it just takes time for those seeds to blossom," Pietrack said of Seng, who came to FLC from CSU-Pueblo. "When he was given a chance 4-5 games ago to increase his role, he's been outstanding."

Up next for the Skyhawks will be another pivotal game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Colorado Christian University (1-18 overall, 1-12 RMAC).

FLC, currently tied for the eighth and final playoff spot in the RMAC standings, will be hunting its first weekend sweep of the RMAC season and improve upon its 3-4 record on the second night of back-to-backs.

"We haven't had a RMAC weekend sweep. There are only three schools that haven't done it and we're one of them, so we desperately need one and the guys know that," Pietrack said. "We're back to even (6-6 RMAC) with 10 games to go, five each (home and away), and we have to start putting together great Saturday nights or the reality is you're going to run out of Friday nights and the season will end. If we want to keep this thing going, we're going to have to take care of Saturday nights."
 
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