Lubbock Christian LCU 23-11,16-6 Lone Star

Fort Lewis FLC 29-3,20-2 RMAC

Lubbock Christian LCU

23-11,16-6 Lone Star

Final

Mar. 16, 2024

Fort Lewis FLC

29-3,20-2 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Lubbock Christian LCU	32	40	72
Fort Lewis FLC	37	49	86

Summary
Box Score

Hayden Mangan, Fort Lewis Athletic Communications

Obi Agbim (5) hits a corner trey as he led Fort Lewis with 16 points against Lubbock Christian in the South-Central Regional Quarterfinals on Mar. 16, 2024, at First United Bank Center.

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 3/16/2024 4:51:00 PM | Hayden Mangan, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

No. 5 Skyhawks roll past Chaps into regional semifinal rematch with Mavericks

CANYON, Texas – Obi Agbim led the way with 16 points, Brayden Carter added 15 points, Amondo Miller Jr. registered another 14 points, and Malik Whitaker added the final 12 to highlight a balanced scoring effort that saw No. 5-ranked Fort Lewis (29-3) systematically dismantle Lubbock Christian (23-11) on its way to an 86-72 win and regional semifinal matchup against No. 6-ranked Colorado Mesa (28-4) tomorrow night at First United Bank Center.

Fort Lewis, for the second straight season, has defeated Lubbock Christian to earn a South-Central Regional Quarterfinal victory and advance to the round of 32 in the NCAA DII Men's Basketball Tournament. The Skyhawks advance to take on the third-seeded Mavericks in a rematch of the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Championship. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

It was familiar territory for FLC tonight as the Skyhawks, for the fourth consecutive game, found themselves trailing early thanks to five straight buckets from the Chaparrals to open the afternoon capped off by a Kurt Wegscheider layup for the 11-4 advantage. LCU wasn't done, however, as the Lone Star Conference Tournament runners-up found themselves quickly building momentum as an Ethan Duncan layup in transition gave the Chaps its largest lead of the night, 15-6.

Without a home court advantage behind them, Fort Lewis quickly blindsided Lubbock Christian with its composure and resilience and fought to a two-point deficit, 15-13, on a three-point from Miller Jr. out on the wing. In what became an offensive punch-for-punch exchange the rest of the half, it was FLC that found itself in front in the final minutes as Junior Garbrah – who tallied nine points in the contest – provided the final lead change of the night, 31-29, with 1:54 on the clock as he connected for a trey on the left wing.

Out of the locker room, the Skyhawks momentum continued as the blue and gold knocked down five of its first six shots to hold back the Chaparrals. Holding at a steady single-digit lead for the first eight minutes, the dam finally cracked at the 12:16 mark as Whitaker, who also had a rebound, steal, and a pair of assists, hauled in a defensive board and took it to the bucket on the opposite end for the score. Fort Lewis then kicked the door in with 4:40 left to play as Isaiah Thompson got to the bucket for the score followed by an and-one for a 16-point lead: FLC's largest of the night.

While Fort Lewis lost a narrow turnover margin of 9-8, it was a defensive effort that had the Skyhawks out-rebounding the Chaparrals 37-29 while also holding LCU, who entered the game as the third-best three-point shooting team in DII at 42.05 percent, to only 7-30 (23.3 percent) from beyond the arc. In addition, FLC dominated on points in the paint 40-26, and bench points, 34-14.

Duncan guided Lubbock Christian with 16 points on 6-16 (37.5 percent) shooting to pair with six boards while Wegscheider posted 15 points with a team-high seven rebounds and Najeeb Muhammad scored 10 points of his own to round the Chaps to finish with double-digit scoring efforts.

Quotables
On the win over Lubbock Christian:
"Lubbock Christian is a very hard team to play, they make you be disciplined. The slow start, I don't understand why it's happening to us, it's something we'll try to fix. I'm very proud of our team's effort, energy, and execution in the last 35 minutes of the game." – Head coach Bob Pietrack

On his first-half performance:
"Just trying to do anything to give my team a spark, defense, offense, whatever, you know. Just trying to make plays and get us going." – sophomore guard Amondo Miller Jr.

On his second-half performance and taking advantage of his size:
"I was just using my size to my advantage and used my abilities to get to the bucket and help us win." – junior forward Brayden Carter

Notables
-Fort Lewis has matched Lubbock Christian 5-5 in the all-time series and has now won back-to-back games against the Chaparrals.
-The Skyhawks, making its second consecutive appearance at the South-Central Regional, has won its opening round game in six of its last seven trips and advanced to the regional semifinals and NCAA Tournament round of 32.
-Head Coach Bob Pietrack is now 4-4 in NCAA Tournament games.
-Fort Lewis has matched its program record of 29 wins in a season.
-FLC remains unbeaten when scoring 80 or more points (24-0), when four or more Skyhawks finish in double-figure scoring (19-0), and when leading its opponent at half-time (26-0).
-Obi Agbim has now led Fort Lewis in scoring in its last seven games.
-Brayden Carter was a perfect 7-7 from the floor and 1-1 at the charity stripe.
-FLC has shot 54.0 percent or better in three of its last four games.

Third Go Around
Fort Lewis and Colorado Mesa will meet for the third time this season tomorrow night in Canyon for one of two South-Central Regional Semifinals. The Skyhawks won both the regular-season and RMAC Tournament Championship matchups 87-79 and 86-75, respectively, on CMU's home floor. The winner of tomorrow's matchup will play the winner of tomorrow night's prime-time game that will feature with winners of tonight's quarterfinals between West Texas A&M (26-4) and Angelo State (19-10, and Dallas Baptist (24-5) and Colorado School of Mines (24-8).

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