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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Riley Farris 1.3.21
Peyton Rutkowski
FLC senior forward Riley Farris scored a season-high 31 points in Saturday's 84-79 loss to S.D. Mines (File photo).
84
Winner South Dakota Mines SDSMT 3-3,3-3 RMAC
79
Fort Lewis FLC 2-3,1-3 RMAC
Winner
South Dakota Mines SDSMT
3-3,3-3 RMAC
84
Final
79
Fort Lewis FLC
2-3,1-3 RMAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
South Dakota Mines SDSMT 31 37 16 84
Fort Lewis FLC 36 32 11 79

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

Missed free throws loom large as Skyhawks fall by 84-79 final to S.D. Mines in overtime

DURANGO, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team started the New Year with a thriller. But unfortunately for the Skyhawks, they came up just shy Sunday afternoon, falling by an 84-79 final in overtime to South Dakota School of Mines.

"Credit to South Dakota Mines, they played a nice ballgame," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "We just didn't make enough free throws, collectively, down the stretch or in overtime, had a couple costly turnovers in overtime, and then there was some timely shooting from South Dakota Mines."

Fort Lewis (2-3 overall, 1-3 RMAC) left the gym lamenting 12 missed free throws (16-of-28, 57.1%) and three turnovers in overtime that flipped Sunday's back and forth affair, which featured 11 ties and 11 lead changes, in favor of the visiting Hardrockers (3-3 overall, 3-3 RMAC).

"When you don't make your free throws it really zaps your momentum," Pietrack said. "We left 12 free throws out there and that's a lot."

Senior forward Riley Farris poured in a season-high 31 points, 20 coming in the first half, to pace all scorers, and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. The 31 points were the most for Farris since he scored a career-high 36 in the 2019-2020 season finale against Adams State University back on Feb. 28.

Fellow senior Corey Seng was also brilliant, scoring 16 points in his 38 minutes. He was in line to play hero, converting a 3-point play with nine seconds remaining that helped the Skyhawks force overtime. He then nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:35 remaining in overtime that gave FLC a 75-72 advantage.

South Dakota School of Mines answered with a 3-pointer of its own the ensuing possession from Brevin Walter, who drilled another 3-pointer at the 1:08 mark to give the Hardrockers the lead for good at 80-77.

"Corey hit that three and gave us a little momentum, but then we got lost on a defensive assignment and gave up a 3-pointer," Pietrack said. "Followed by a turnover and a layup (for SDM). It pretty much summed it up."

It was a disappointing end for a Skyhawks team that was playing short-handed Sunday without the services of two 6'9 frontcourt players in redshirt junior Brenden Boatwright and junior Brendan La Rose.

The Hardrockers took advantage, finishing the evening with a 48-20 advantage in points in the paint.

South Dakota Mines held the slight edge in field goal percentage, 52.6% (30-for-57) to FLC's 46.6% (27-for-58), and a 16-10 advantage in bench points.

"We didn't get much scoring off the bench and normally we're pretty good off the bench," Pietrack said. "We had to play the starters heavy minutes and I thought they got a little tired."

Sophomore guard Akuel Kot was the third Skyhawk in double-figures Sunday with 11 points, while senior guard Will Wittman added eight points and junior Tyler Kinghorn chipped in six to round out FLC's top scorers.

The Skyhawks will look to rebound next weekend when they continue their three-game home stand with matchups against Colorado Christian (7:30 p.m. Friday) and Metropolitan State University of Denver (6 p.m. Saturday).

"We've got to get everything back together and move forward. Any time you lose, it's tough to swallow, but we're not going to get discouraged and we'll keep working at it," Pietrack said. "We have really good people (in our locker room). We've played three really close games in a row and all of them just haven't gone our way. We've got to figure out why that is happening and simply do better."
 
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