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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Farris and Seng 11.21
Angela Roberts, FLC Athletic Communications
61
Northern N.M. NNMU 0-4
96
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 3-1,0-0 RMAC
Northern N.M. NNMU
0-4
61
Final
96
Fort Lewis FLC
3-1,0-0 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Northern N.M. NNMU 30 31 61
Fort Lewis FLC 51 45 96

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

Skyhawks' defense limits Eagles to 37% shooting in 96-61 rout to conclude home stand

DURANGO, Colo. — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team, pigeonholed as an offensive juggernaut, put the finishing touches on a dominant defensive week on Sunday, limiting Northern New Mexico College to 37% shooting en route to a 96-61 rout on Nike N7 Night inside Whalen Gymnasium.

Sunday's performance marked back-to-back games the Skyhawks (3-1 overall), who are averaging 91 points per game on offense through four games, have held an opponent under 70 points. They also accomplished the feat on Wednesday in an 85-64 win over the University of the Southwest.

"I thought our defensive energy, basically for 40 minutes, was suffocating," said FLC head men's basketball coach Bob Pietrack. "I thought our defense, the pressure and our rebounding, we didn't allow for them to have much hope in the ballgame. We've been taking a lot of pride in getting better, defensively. Offense comes a little more naturally for our team, but the message this week to the guys was, 'We want to guard.' We've kept two teams in the 60's this week, so that's a good step."

Leading the way defensively for the Skyhawks was senior guard Corey Seng, who paced FLC with three steals, six assists and tied for the team lead with six rebounds to go with his 12 points (4-of-5 shooting) in 24 minutes.

Seng was near flawless on the defensive end as he didn't commit a foul and held his assignment, Eagles' guard Jafari Mohammed, to two points and three turnovers.

"Corey is gold to have. He's a guy who has played a lot of college basketball and plays his role beautifully. If you are a young kid watching the game, you'd want to be like No. 20," Pietrack said of Seng. "He makes open shots, he shares the ball, he guards his tail off and on many different assignments, he's an auxiliary ball-handler who doesn't turn it over; he's exactly what you'd want."

Seng was one of four Skyhawks in double-figures Sunday, led by fellow senior Riley Farris as he tallied 20 points and six rebounds in just 21 minutes on 6-of-10 shooting. The 6'9 forward out of Hutto, Texas led the RMAC in scoring at 21.6 points per game in 2020-21 and is averaging 21.8 points per content on 64% shooting through FLC first four games this winter.

Farris scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, helping FLC create a 51-30 gap heading into the halftime locker rooms.

Sophomore guard Akuel Kot poured in 17 points off the bench and added five rebounds, while redshirt junior forward Brenden Boatwright was the fourth Skyhawk in double-figures with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes.

"We're starting to settle into our roles and what Akuel's role has been is to be a scorer off the bench. And if you study a lot of NCAA teams at this level, they always have somebody off the bench that is a go-to scorer," Pietrack said. "Not only his Akuel providing that, but Will Wittman is also providing a really good punch off the bench."

Wittman provided seven points and six rebounds, while junior guard Dunnell Stafford chipped in six points and two steals atop the FLC defense.

Getting his first extended run, redshirt freshman Ra'Shjon Martinez provided the cherry on top as he set career highs in minutes played (9), points (8) and rebounds (2) on an efficient 3-of-4 shooting.

"We're really high on Ray. He kind of got a tough draw because, when we recruited him, Corey and Will were seniors. Ray was going to redshirt before the Covid-19 waiver year, so now he is a redshirt freshman and the guys he was recruited to eventually replace are still here," Pietrack said. "He's in a little bit of a tough spot because he is good enough to play in games, he's just behind some very veteran good players. Hopefully tonight was just a glimpse into the future of what Ray can bring."

The Skyhawks will look to build off Sunday's performance next weekend when they conclude non-conference play with two big neutral site games out in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Fort Lewis is scheduled to take on a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) opponents in Western Oregon (5:30 p.m. Friday) and Central Washington (5 p.m. Saturday) before opening up RMAC action Friday, Dec. 3 on the road against Chadron State College.

"Our program understands how the big the weekend is. All these regional Division II games are critical and we play two really good opponents from the GNAC, which is a great basketball league," Pietrack said. "We're excited to get (to Salt Lake) and play those games. We understand how much they mean. We like where our team is and understand that we just need to keep moving forward. We have one more week to try and improve before we go to Chadron State and open RMAC play."
 
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