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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Corey Seng 2.4
[Chris Neal/Shooter Imaging]
97
Winner N.M. Highlands NMH 8-11,3-10 RMAC
83
Fort Lewis FLC 11-7,7-5 RMAC
Winner
N.M. Highlands NMH
8-11,3-10 RMAC
97
Final
83
Fort Lewis FLC
11-7,7-5 RMAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
N.M. Highlands NMH 52 45 97
Fort Lewis FLC 39 44 83

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

Early hole plagues Skyhawks in high-scoring loss to New Mexico Highlands

DURANGO, Colo. — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team dropped a high-scoring track meet Friday evening inside Whalen Gymnasium, falling by a 97-83 final to New Mexico Highlands University.

The two teams combined for 62 made field goals and 180 points in a wild back-and-forth affair from the opening tip. NMHU (8-11 overall, 3-10 RMAC) shot a blistering 58% from the field (35-for-60) and 46% from 3-point range (13-for-28), marking back-to-back games the streaky Cowboys have made double-digit treys and shot over 50% in a game.

"Credit to Coach Dominguez and Highlands because they just outplayed us. They had a better plan than us and executed their plan better than we executed our plan," said FLC head men's basketball coach, Bob Pietrack. "The league has so much parity and sometimes there are just some matchups that are hard matchups. Highlands is a very hard matchup for us. Their strengths are some of our weaknesses and they just highlighted them. And then they played well on top of that."

Fort Lewis (11-7 overall, 7-5 RMAC) was led by senior forward Riley Farris, honored pregame in front of the home crowd for breaking the program's all-time scoring record last week, with a game-high 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

Farris was one of four Skyhawks in double-figures, joined by sophomore guard Akuel Kot (13 points), senior guard Corey Seng (11 points, five assists and four rebounds) and sophomore guard Junior Garbrah (10 points).

Unfortunately for the Skyhawks, the offense was forced to play quick early in the first half as FLC fell down by 10 early at 19-9 and were in catch-up mode the rest of the evening. FLC shot below its season average, going 27-for-61 (44%) from the floor and committing 15 turnovers against consistent full-court pressure from the Cowboys.

"Anytime you're in catch-up mode the whole game, and they have you at a jabber's distance, you're sped up," Pietrack said.

Fort Lewis was able to cut the Cowboys' lead to single digits on multiple occasions, the last time coming at 88-79 with 4:20 remaining, but were unable to inch any closer.

New Mexico Highlands kept its cushion with a balanced offensive effort that saw six different players finish in double-figures, led by its guard tandem of Sammy Barnes-Thompkins (19 points) and Desmond Carpenter (15 points).

Not helping matters was the foul trouble for FLC senior guard JacQuess Hobbs, one the Skyhawks' top perimeter defenders, who was limited to just 11 minutes on Friday.

"Because of Thompkins and Carpenter on their ball screens, you have to pick what you're going to live with to some degree," Pietrack said. "But our effort wasn't good enough, defensively, obviously when you give up that many points. (NMHU) made tough shots and they made big shots and we could never get over the hump."

FLC redshirt junior forward Brenden Boatwright added nine points and team-high eight rebounds, while Hobbs chipped in six points to help lead the Skyhawks.

Fort Lewis will look to bounce back Saturday when it completes the mini two-game home stand against another high-scoring opponent in the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

UCCS comes into the matchup ranked second in the RMAC in scoring (81.9 PPG), just behind the Skyhawks (84.7 PPG). Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside Whalen Gymnasium.
"We'll have to turn the page quick. I told the guys, 'Hey listen, we lost. They beat us period.' And we'll have to come back tomorrow and try to play really good basketball against a good team," Pietrack said. "We look forward to that opportunity. It's a new day (Saturday) and we'll play the best we can."
 
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