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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Cesar Molina 2.20
Benjamin Brashear, FLC Marketing
FLC senior Cesar Molina scored four points and dished out five assists during Saturday's Senior Night victory over CSU Pueblo.
77
Colorado St.-Pueblo CSU-P 3-11,3-11 RMAC
89
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 6-7,5-7 RMAC
Colorado St.-Pueblo CSU-P
3-11,3-11 RMAC
77
Final
89
Fort Lewis FLC
6-7,5-7 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Colorado St.-Pueblo CSU-P 47 30 77
Fort Lewis FLC 47 42 89

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

Skyhawks' offense sizzles in 89-77 victory over CSU Pueblo on Senior Night

DURANGO, Colorado — Basketball can be a fickle game, with millimeters being the difference between shots dropping or clanking harmlessly off the iron.

Less than 24 hours after its worst offensive performance of the season, the Fort Lewis College men's basketball team returned to form in a big way Saturday night in an 89-77 victory against Colorado State University Pueblo on Senior Night.

The 89 points tied a season high for the Skyhawks (6-7 overall, 5-7 RMAC), while their blistering 62.5% (35-of-56) shooting performance was the program's best output since shooting 65.5% (38-of-58) back on Jan. 14, 2017 in a 98-75 win over South Dakota School of Mines.

"I loved seeing 21 assists on 35 made shots. I thought we really shared the ball, the scoring was really balanced, and we had a lot of guys play well," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "I was really proud of the way we responded tonight as a team."

Fort Lewis had five players finish in double-figures, led by its twin tower duo of senior forward Riley Farris and redshirt junior forward Brenden Boatwright with 16 points apiece.

Evident of the Skyhawks' shot-making prowess Saturday, Boatwright drained a corner 3-pointer — his first career make on just two attempts — that sent the FLC bench into a frenzy with 5:42 remaining and the Skyhawks enjoying a 77-61 lead.

"It's funny, because we do that out-of-bounds play in practice, and (Boatwright) is always in the corner and people sag off, naturally," Pietrack said. "But Boat is a really good free-throw shooter. So, if it's a set shot, he's a big strong ox and he can make them. He has a gorgeous looking shot."

Senior guard Will Wittman added 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while fellow senior guard Corey Seng and sophomore guard Dunnell Stafford chipped in 11 points and 10 points, respectfully.

Seng, a transfer from CSU Pueblo two seasons ago, finished a team-best +21 in the plus/minus column during his 32 minutes, much of which was spent chasing around ThunderWolves (3-11 overall, 3-11 RMAC) leading scorer, David Simental, who scored 42 against FLC in December of 2019.

Simental scored 14 of his 27 points through the game's first 11 minutes, helping CSU Pueblo send the game into halftime tied 47-47. But he was held to just two points through the first 14 minutes of the second half as the Skyhawks began to build their lead.

"We changed our ball-screen coverage about three-fourths of the way through the first half because we couldn't guard him. He's a really good player and a lot of teams have struggled with him," Pietrack said of Simental. "And Seng did a good job, our bigs did a good job of shadowing in the second half."

FLC opened the second half on a 9-2 run, and extended its lead to as many as 19 points at 82-63 with 3:05 remaining thanks in large part to the quality minutes off the bench from reserves Tyler Kinghorn (8 points), Brendan La Rose (4 points) and Stafford (11 points), while senior point guard Cesar Molina (4 points, 5 assists) quarterbacked the unit to help the Skyhawks create their gap.

"The depth in the second half was the difference," Pietrack said. "That group that got the gap was excellent, then we were able to bring our starters back in and basically put the game on ice."

Fort Lewis will look to build off Saturday's momentum when it closes out its regular season home schedule at 3 p.m. Tuesday with a make-up game against Metropolitan State University of Denver.

"It's a great rivalry game with Metro and Fort Lewis. You're talking about two championship RMAC programs, two blueblood programs of our league," Pietrack said. "They're having a great season and are third in the standings. All three games next week are playoff games for us. That's the bed we're in right now so we have to lay in it. We just have to fight all we can for a special week."
 
Notes:

Cesar Molina was honored as the lone graduating senior for the Skyhawks on Saturday night. He and coach Pietrack shared their thoughts on his five years with Fort Lewis.

Molina: "There's a lot of good memories. When you experience success my freshman year, winning championships, then struggling in the following years and coming back to almost beating the No. 1 team in the nation, it's just a lot of good memories. But at the end of the day, the thing I'm most thankful for is the relationships I made with the staff, with my teammates, that will probably last a lifetime. That's all I can ask for."

Pietrack: "When you recruit a high school kid, you don't know what you're going to get. Sometimes you hit a home run and sometimes you don't. And I just can't stress enough how much he has meant to our program. He represents everything that is right with Division II athletics…When you get into coaching, you hope you get a Cesar Molina."
 
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