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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Brenden Boatwright 11.26
David Wilson, FLC Athletics
89
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 4-1,0-0 RMAC
63
Western Ore. WOU 1-5,0-0 Great Northwest
Winner
Fort Lewis FLC
4-1,0-0 RMAC
89
Final
63
Western Ore. WOU
1-5,0-0 Great Northwest
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLC 52 37 89
Western Ore. WOU 33 30 63

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

Skyhawks lead wire-to-wire in 89-63 win over Western Oregon

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team showed no signs of a Thanksgiving hangover on Friday, putting together arguably it's most complete performance of the young 2021-22 season in an 89-63 rout of Western Oregon University on neutral ground in Salt Lake City.

Fort Lewis (4-1 overall), which led wire-to-wire on Friday, has now won three straight games; holding opponents to under 70 points in all three contests.

"We have a lot of respect for Western Oregon and their conference. We really wanted to come out and play well tonight," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "I was very happy with our defensive intensity and we were able to make some shots to get us settled in. Then for us to only have seven turnovers; I was very pleased with how the guys played tonight."

The seven turnovers were a season low for the Skyhawks, who forced Western Oregon (1-4 overall) into 14 giveaways on the defensive end en route to a 21-10 advantage in points off turnovers on the evening.

Fort Lewis was clicking from the opening tip as it built a 14-point lead over the Wolves by the eight-minute media of the first half and took a 52-33 lead into the halftime locker rooms. FLC shot a sizzling 59% in the first half — 51.6 % (33-of-64) for the game — while owning a 28-16 advantage in points in the paint through the first 20 minutes.

FLC's frontcourt tandem of senior Riley Farris and Brenden Boatwright combined for 27 first-half points. Farris would lead all scorers with a game-high 21 on 9-of-13 shooting, while Boatwright added 14 points and four rebounds in just 16 minutes.

Senior guard Will Wittman continued his blistering start to the winter with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including an alley-oop slam off an assist by junior Dunnell Stafford with 39 remaining in the first half.

In addition to his above the rim work, Wittman was 3-for-4 from 3-point range and the Skyhawks as a team shot a season-high 50% (9-of-18) from deep on Friday after a modest start from 3-point range (32%) entering the weekend.

"We feel like we can shoot it better than the 32% we came into the game with," Pietrack said. "We're not a team that shoots a ton of threes because we want to get the ball inside. But I think it just came down to us getting our game legs underneath us here in the beginning of the season."

While the FLC offense continued to fire on all cylinders, the Skyhawks' defense did it's part in throwing a wrench into the Wolves' offensive game plan as senior Corey Seng shut down Western Oregon leading scorer, Cameron Cranston.

Cranston entered Friday leading the Wolves in scoring at 20.6 points per game, but was limited to just five points on 2-of-4 shooting and four turnovers in 38 minutes.

"Corey Seng did an unbelievable job on Cranston. We really wanted to take him out of the game," Pietrack said. "The last few years, he's averaged 20 points a game and really their offensive catalyst. I thought Corey, and we put Will on him some as well, did a great job of making it hard on (Cranston) at all times so he didn't get easy looks."

Seng added nine points on the offensive end, while senior guard JacQuess Hobbs and sophomore guard Akuel Kot each added nine points apiece, as well, to help pace the FLC offense.

The Skyhawks will look to extend their win streak to four and earn a weekend sweep of GNAC foes on Saturday when they square off against perennial power Central Washington University. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. inside Behnken Field House on the Westminster College campus.

"Central Washington is a very good program and has been ever since I got into Division II coaching. They are a storied program in the GNAC so we're looking forward to that competition," Pietrack said. "We know we're going against a very good opponent and we'll need to play 40 minutes of great basketball to end the weekend the way we want to."
 
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