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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Stafford 12.5.20
Peyton Rutkowski
FLC sophomore guard Dunnell Stafford scored a game-high 18 points in Saturday's 89-69 win over Western Colorado.
69
Western Colo. WC 0-1,0-0 RMAC
89
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 1-0,0-0 RMAC
Western Colo. WC
0-1,0-0 RMAC
69
Final
89
Fort Lewis FLC
1-0,0-0 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Western Colo. WC 21 48 69
Fort Lewis FLC 38 51 89

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

Five players score in double-figures as Skyhawks roll to 89-69 victory over Western Colorado to open 2020-21

DURANGO, Colorado — It had been 273 long days since a home sporting event was played on the Fort Lewis College campus due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Without the boost from 2,000 screaming Skyhawks' faithful lining the seats inside Whalen Gymnasium, the FLC men's basketball team made the most of its first opportunity to suit up in 2020-21 with an 89-69 rout of Western Colorado University in a non-conference matchup between the two in-state rivals.

"It feels tremendous to play a game and I'd first like to start off by thanking President Stritikus and that whole staff, and then our athletic staff, for making it even possible to us getting here," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "I was very encouraged by our team. We hadn't even scrimmaged anyone, so we had to find our way in the first half and you could tell there was some rust to start the game. But once we got in the groove I thought there was a lot of positive things for us."

Fort Lewis (1-0 overall, 0-0 RMAC) dictated the action over the final 30 minutes, taking the lead for good at the 12:40 mark of the first half and building a 38-21 lead at the half.

Nine different players cracked the scoring column for the Skyhawks, including five players in double-figures and senior guard Will Wittman with nine points.

Junior guard Dunnell Stafford, a transfer from Solano College, exploded for 18 points off the bench on 8-of-11 shooting to lead all scorers, while sophomore Akuel Kot went for 17 points with three steals, seniors Riley Farris and Corey Seng poured in 15 points apiece, and redshirt junior Cesar Molina added 10 points in his first game action since Nov. 16, 2019.

"When we've been good here, we've had really good distribution. The points have been spread us and our bench really helped us," said Pietrack, who's team owned a 38-3 margin in bench points Saturday. "We're trying to break up the minutes to get the best minutes we can get out of everybody. But I thought overall our depth really showed (Saturday). It's the first time we've been healthy, truly healthy, in two years."

Fort Lewis leaned on a revamped defense in the first half before its high-powered offense gained traction, limiting the Mountaineers to a dismal 21% (6-of-29) shooting performance through the game's first 20 minutes.

Western Colorado finished at a 39.7% (23-for-58) clip for the game, while FLC held an opponent to under the magical 70-point total for the first time since a 78-65 victory over Metropolitan State University of Denver last January.

The Skyhawks also forced 18 turnovers and blocked five shots; three of which came courtesy of junior forward Brendan La Rose in the first half.

 "I thought in the first half we were really, really good defensively," Pietrack said. "In the second half, to (WCU) credit they made some really tough 3-pointers that I thought were contested and played hard. We need to keep teams at 70 and we've been really consistent for a long time scoring in the 80's… For us, the defense, energy and depth will be the key to our season and our guys buying into that."

Offensively, Fort Lewis showed its muscle in the second half as it shot a blistering 69% (20-for-29), littered with highlight reel dunks and passes coming from Farris, the Skyhawks preseason All-American center and First Team All-RMAC selection from a season ago after he averaged 23.9 points per game.

Farris flirted with a triple-double, finishing the evening with 11 rebounds and eight assists to go with his 15 points as he carved up the multitude of double-teams he encountered.

"I know the double-teams are coming. It's just what happens when you have the scoring year I did last year. But, really, it's just trusting my teammates to get in their spots and they did tonight," said Farris about his facilitator role on Saturday. "I couldn't be happier with how they performed and how we all did."

The Skyhawks will look to duplicate that effort on Tuesday when they travel out to Gunnison for a rematch with the Mountaineers. This time with the game designated as a conference contest.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside Paul Wright Gymnasium.

"We've never been in this situation," said Pietrack, referencing the back-to-back against the same RMAC foe. "But as coaches, it's fun to get the tape and make adjustments. I thought we made really good adjustments as the game went on. So we'll watch (the film), learn from it, try to think about how they're going to react to it, how are they going to react to what we did (Saturday) and knowing that we have to go to a really tough place to play."
 
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