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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Brendan La Rose 12.3
Kaleb Center, Chadron State Athletics
87
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 5-2,1-0 RMAC
63
Chadron St. Chad 4-5,0-1 RMAC
Winner
Fort Lewis FLC
5-2,1-0 RMAC
87
Final
63
Chadron St. Chad
4-5,0-1 RMAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLC 53 34 87
Chadron St. Chad 22 41 63

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

Skyhawks cruise to 87-63 road win over Chadron State to open up RMAC action

CHADRON, Neb. – The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team made a statement Friday, rolling to a convincing 87-63 road win over Chadron State College to open up RMAC conference play.

Fort Lewis (5-2 overall, 1-0 RMAC) never trailed and had 12 different players score Friday, blitzing the Eagles (4-5 overall, 0-1 RMAC) from the opening tap.

"Road wins in the RMAC are so critically important. We got off to a great start, which always helps, and I'm really proud of our team," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "We knew we had to come out and set the tone, defensively. We work a tremendous amount on defense and we felt, in the second half last weekend against Central Washington, we weren't happy with our defensive effort. So we wanted to come out and set the tone. Once we did, everything started going well for us because of the energy we had."

Senior forward Riley Farris tallied his first double-double of the season to help lead the way for the Skyhawks with a game-high 18 points and 10 rebounds. He was joined in double-figures by sophomore guard Akuel Kot with 10 points and redshirt junior forward Brenden Boatwright, who poured in 11 of his 15 points in the first half.

After opening the ballgame on a 12-2 run, the Skyhawks put the game away early as they extended their first-half lead to as many as 34 points at 44-12 by the 4:36 mark.

FLC shot at its season average of 51% (19-of-37) through the game's opening 20 minutes, complimenting a defensive effort that saw the Skyhawks limit the Eagles to 22 first-half points on a mere 9-of-28 (32%) shooting with 12 turnovers.

"In basketball, lot of people think you feed off your defense. But you also get a lot of energy when you're hitting shots and we hit a bunch of shots in that first half," Pietrack said. "That energy became a tidal wave."

Senior guard Will Wittman scored all nine of his points in the first half, while sophomore guard Junior Garbrah (9 points), as well as seniors Corey Seng (7 points) and Dunnell Stafford (7 points) helped pace the FLC offense.

Defensively, senior guard JacQuess Hobbs nabbed a career-high four steals to go with his four points and seven assists in 22 minutes.

FLC redshirt sophomore forward Brendan La Rose helped cap the night in style, tallying one of his five rebounds with a monster put-back slam with 8:55 remaining that gave the Skyhawks their largest lead of the night, 75-40.

In addition to picking up their first conference win, Friday's performance allowed the Skyhawks to limit minutes on the front-end of the weekend back-to-back. No FLC player topped more than 23 minutes played while nine players logged at least 16 minutes heading into Saturday's 6 p.m. clash against Black Hills State University.

"Spreading out the minutes is a very critical piece when you're playing back-to-back games and we were fortunate enough to create a big enough gap that no one needed to play more than 23 minutes," Pietrack said. "It's certainly going to help us. But with the back-to-back games, as much as they are physically taxing, they are also mental. Whether you play 20 minutes or 30 minutes, it also comes down to how focused are you and how quickly can you turn the page to get ready for another game."

Saturday's matchup against the Yellow Jackets will be a rematch of last year's RMAC semi-finals, where Black Hills State was able to hold on for a 75-67 victory, and a highly anticipated game between two teams that each received first-place votes and top-5 consideration in the RMAC Coaches' Preseason Poll.

Fort Lewis leads the all-time series, 5-4, and will be looking for its first win out in Spearfish, South Dakota since Feb. 6, 2016.

"Black Hills is a well-coached team and has been for years. They have a great program and they are led by one of the RMAC's premier players in Joel Scott," Pietrack said. "We're excited for the competition. They have one of the best homecourt advantages in the RMAC and we're looking forward to competing in that atmosphere. Competition at this level against really good teams is a real gift. You don't get them on Sunday afternoons during the summer. We'll take it as a cherished opportunity to play well."
 
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