Black Hills St. BHSU 13-12,11-8 RMAC

Fort Lewis FLC 23-2,18-1 RMAC

Black Hills St. BHSU

13-12,11-8 RMAC

Final

Feb. 23, 2024

Fort Lewis FLC

23-2,18-1 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Black Hills St. BHSU	39	40	79
Fort Lewis FLC	33	54	87

Summary
Box Score

Kaitlyn Silva

Jhei-R Jones (11) finished with a season-high 16 points while adding 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and a block and steal each.

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 2/23/2024 11:14:00 PM | Hayden Mangan, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

Capacity crowd fuels No. 3 Fort Lewis past Black Hills State, 87-79

DURANGO, Colo. – Energy wins ball games. And tonight, the town of Durango and the Fort Lewis faithful showed up and did just that.

After allowing a 15-0 run up late in the first half and trailing by six headed into the intermission, the No. 3-ranked Fort Lewis men's basketball team, aided by a thunderous Whalen Gymnasium filled to 97 percent capacity (2,679), rallied behind its home crowd, and showed tremendous grit as they out-lasted Black Hills State 87-79 at the final buzzer.

Fort Lewis moves up to 23-2 overall and reaches the 23-win mark for the eighth time in program history while advancing to 18-1 in conference play. The Yellow Jackets drop to 13-12 overall and 11-8 in league play.

The Skyhawks stymied the Yellow Jackets in the early minutes as Isaiah Thompson notched a 10-0 advantage on a three-pointer from the corner to cap off what was a 5:24 scoring drought for BHSU. Caelin Hearne, who finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-17 shooting before fouling out, drained a trey to finally get Black Hills State on the board.

Junior Garbrah drove to the bucket at the 6:01 mark to put Fort Lewis ahead 27-19, but it was the last score the blue and gold would muster for 3:52 seconds of play until Garbrah re-lite the flame with a three-pointer of his own. Jhei-R Jones, who rifled off 16 points while leading the Skyhawks with four assists alongside a pair of steals, got to the rim before time expired to cut the deficit to six.

Bedlam filled Whalen Gymnasium as Fort Lewis racked up three turnovers in 1:57 seconds of action to drop in a trio of layups and tie the game at 39-39. Following stalemates at 41-41 and 50-50, the Skyhawks smelt blood and never looked back, shooting 52.9 percent from the field the rest of the way against BHSU's 41.9 percent, and leading by as much as 13 points and trailing by no fewer than six.

Malik Whitaker had an outstanding night for the Skyhawks as the six-foot-six senior out of Houston, Texas, went for a team-high 17 points, and seven rebounds, and set a new career-high with six steals. In addition, Whitaker was 11-13 from the free-throw line tonight to mark program highs in made free throws, free-throw attempts and steals this season.

Garbrah added another 12 points and a pair of steals while Obi Agbim tacked on another 11 points while hauling in seven rebounds, handing out four assists, and picking up a block and a steal. Black Hills State's Matthew Ragsdale, who leads the league averaging 21.2 points per game, was held to just 16 points on 6-16 shooting and also gave up a team-high five turnovers. Joel Speckman scored 12 points while grabbing eight rebounds to round out all players in double-figures scoring.

Fort Lewis, despite having a quiet night from its reserves and edging BHSU 25-20 in bench points, otherwise dominated the Yellow Jackets on points in the paint 44-40 and points off of turnovers 23-0. The Skyhawks forced 20 turnovers out of Black Hills State, its second-most this season, while picking up 15 steals: tied for the seventh most in program history.

Quotables
On tonight's win over Black Hills State:
"I thought it was a great basketball game. Have to credit Black Hills State, they're the two-time defending regional champions and came in here ready for a great game. I'm just really, really proud of our second half; I thought that was as good of a second half as we've had in terms of intensity and sharing the ball. Really played well for the majority of the game minus that 15-0 run we gave up. I thought the free-throw shooting down the stretch was excellent and when you score 87, you only turn it over seven times, you force 20 turnovers, you've got a chance to win a big game and we did." – Head Coach Bob Pietrack

On playing in front of a near-capacity crowd in Whalen Gymnasium:
"It felt amazing coming from a junior college, we didn't have that many fans in the stands. Coming here, you trust the fans and they give you positive energy. It makes you play harder, better, and that's why we love Fort Lewis fans." – Junior guard Jhei-R Jones

On the locker room adjustments at halftime:
"Our team is built on togetherness and toughness, so when adversity hits us, we go out there and show what we're made of." – Senior guard Malik Whitaker

Notables
-The Skyhawks move to 10-6 all-time against Black Hills State and 4-1 at home after now winning back-to-back contests at home. In addition, FLC gets the regular season sweep over the Yellow Jackets for the second time and in back-to-back seasons.
-FLC has now won 11 consecutive games and is one away from tying its season-high 12-win streak.
-Fort Lewis secured its eighth 23-win season and fifth 18-win conference season in program history.
-The crowd announced at 2,679 (97.41 percent capacity) is the largest this season, the single largest since at least 2014-15, and marks the eighth home game this season with a crowd of 2,000+, beating out the six 2,000+ crowds from last season to mark the most since at least 2014-15. In addition, tonight's crowd is the 28^th highest attend game this season featuring at least one Division II program.
-Tomorrow Fort Lewis plays for a chance at history to become just the sixth team to go undefeated at home through the regular season and the first since 2017-18 (16-0, 1977-78; 9-0, 1986-87; 11-0, 2004-05; 14-0, 2015-16; 14-0, 2017-18).
-Malik Whitaker set season highs in free throw attempts (13) and made free throws (11) tonight while also setting a career-high with six steals; Whitaker's six steals are the most in a single game by a Skyhawk this season.
-FLC's 15 steals tonight on 20 forced turnovers ties the seventh most in program history which the Skyhawks also achieved in a 116-67 win over Navajo Technical University back on Jan. 2 of this year.
-Jhei-R Jones set a season-high with 16 points scored.
-Fort Lewis is now 15-0 when four or more Skyhawks finish in double-figures scoring.

Senior Night on Deck
Tomorrow night the Skyhawks will play for back-to-back season sweeps and its fourth straight win over the Hardrockers from South Dakota Mines (11-14, 9-10 RMAC) who are coming off of a hard-fought 83-81 overtime win over Adams State (8-17, 6-13 RMAC) and fighting for a spot in the RMAC Tournament. Senior day festivities featuring Junior Garbrah, Sekou Dembele, and Malik Whitaker are scheduled to follow the conclusion of the women's game before warmups. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.

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