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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Riley Farris 2.27
Benjamin Brashear, FLC Marketing
FLC senior Riley Farris scored 20 points on Saturday, ends the regular season as the RMAC's leading scorer during the regular season (File Photo).
58
Fort Lewis FLC 7-8,6-8 RMAC
78
Winner Colorado Mesa CMU 18-1,18-1 RMAC
Fort Lewis FLC
7-8,6-8 RMAC
58
Final
78
Colorado Mesa CMU
18-1,18-1 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLC 29 29 58
Colorado Mesa CMU 41 37 78

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

Skyhawks fall on the road to #5 CMU to end regular season, qualify as No. 6 seed for RMAC Tournament

GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team knew a win over No. 5 ranked Colorado Mesa University would guarantee the team a spot in the RMAC Tournament.

The ideal ending didn't go the Skyhawks' way as they fell by a 78-58 final Saturday evening out in Grand Junction. However, Fort Lewis did end up earning its desired result, following losses from Regis University and Chadron State, allowing the Skyhawks to vault up to the No. 6 seed in Tuesday's RMAC Tournament quarterfinals.

Fort Lewis (7-8 overall, 6-8 RMAC) finished with an RPI point total of 11.0 given its strength of schedule in a Covid-19 impacted 2020-21 season. The Skyhawks finished ahead of South Dakota School of Mines (10.83) and Chadron State (10.83), as well as Westminster College (10.63), thanks to a 75-56 road win the Skyhawks earned over the Griffins on Friday.

"I think there is obviously some disappointment in the way we played (Saturday), but a new sense of optimism because the season starts fresh on Tuesday," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "Everyone is 0-0 now and we've earned the right to be in the tournament. We felt we were one of the league's best teams, just had some breaks not go our way. But we stuck together as a group and found our way to get in. We're grateful to be in it and want to make the most of our opportunity."

Fort Lewis (7-8 overall, 6-8 RMAC) will travel out to Spearfish, South Dakota on Tuesday for a matchup against the No. 3 seed Black Hills State University Yellow Jackets (10-6 overall, 10-6 RMAC). A tip-off time has not yet been set as of Saturday evening.

The two teams were originally scheduled to face each other in the regular season back on Dec. 5, but had the game postponed due to Covid-19 related issues.

The Skyhawks, the only team to take on No. 5 Colorado Mesa and No. 7 Colorado School of Mines twice during the regular season, has shown it has the ability to play right with some of the nation's best as they took CMU to overtime (74-72 loss) on Jan. 29, and played two tightly contested games decided by six or less points in their matchups against CSM.

"There's no question that in any 40-minute game, we have a chance to win it. This league is very good, has a lot of great teams and great coaches. But we know now we have a 1-out-of-8 shot," Pietrack said. "After being in three straight RMAC Championship games, then not going the last two years, we know how much we value being in the tournament. We're grateful and wanted to do everything we could to be in it."

As for Saturday's contest, the Skyhawks' offense struggled to gain much traction as they shot 41.5% (22-of-53) and committed 15 turnovers on the evening, leading to 15 points for the Mavericks.

The forward tandem of senior Riley Farris and redshirt junior Brenden Boatwright led the way for the Skyhawks, offensively.

Farris poured in 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting, finishing the regular season as the RMAC's scoring leader at 21.8 points per game. As for Boatwright, the 6-9 native of Carlsbad, New Mexico chipped in 10 points, four rebounds and three assists while scoring in double-figures for 12th straight game.

Unfortunately, Saturday's collective struggled for the Skyhawks was an unusual performance for a FLC offense that was humming entering the ballgame, coming off of its two most efficient shooting performances of the season in victories over CSU Pueblo and Westminster College.

"We didn't get much rhythm going, offensively, then Colorado Mesa is really a hard team to guard. They got the momentum and we didn't seem to get quite comfortable enough to mount a comeback," Pietrack said. "I thought we turned it over, uncharacteristically, too much and that led to some easy baskets for them. And once they were comfortable, they just made it uncomfortable for us."

Colorado Mesa shot 53.4% (31-of-58) for the game and owned a 36-26 advantage in rebounding, turning nine offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points.

"We didn't rebound the ball very well and I thought Mesa out-toughed us on a lot of those possessions," Pietrack said. "Hopefully, we get a chance to play Tuesday and just do better. The second-half of the back-to-backs are difficult and we just didn't have the right energy to beat a team of their caliber tonight."

Junior guard Dunnell Stafford added seven points and two assists, while sophomore guard Akuel Kot finished with five points and two rebounds. Defensively, sophomore forward Brendan La Rose chipped in three points and a team-high six rebounds to round out FLC's top performers.

Fort Lewis will now turn the page on the regular season and prep for its Tuesday matchup against No. 3 seed Black Hills State in the quarterfinals of the RMAC Tournament. A start time for Tuesday's tilt at the Donald E. Young Center will be announced as soon as possible on the FLC Athletics website.

The RMAC semi-final round is scheduled for Friday at the higher remaining seeds, with the RMAC Championship game to follow on Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
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