Fort Lewis FLC 28-3,20-2 RMAC

Colorado Mesa CMU 27-4,21-1 RMAC

Fort Lewis FLC

28-3,20-2 RMAC

Final

Mar. 09, 2024

Colorado Mesa CMU

27-4,21-1 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Fort Lewis FLC	47	39	86
Colorado Mesa CMU	34	41	75

Summary
Box Score

Hayden Mangan, Fort Lewis Athletic Communications

Fort Lewis men's basketball hoists the 2024 RMAC Tournament Championship banner in Brownson Arena in Grand Junction, Colo., after defeating top-seeded and No. 5 Colorado Mesa, 86-75 on Mar. 9, 2024.

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 3/9/2024 10:08:00 PM | Hayden Mangan, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

Back-to-back! No. 6 Skyhawks claim 2024 RMAC Tournament Championship

Fort Lewis claims first-ever back-to-back RMAC Tournament Championships

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – For the first time in program history, the title of back-to-back Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Champions will reside with the Fort Lewis College men's basketball team after the No. 6-ranked Skyhawks marched into a daunting Brownson Arena and defeated top-seeded, No. 5-ranked, and 2023-24 RMAC Regular Season Champions Colorado Mesa by an 86-75 margin on Saturday night.

Fort Lewis, who trailed by 10 or more points in each game of the RMAC Tournament, climbed the latter to a 28-3 overall record added to its extensive resume for a chance at hosting the NCAA South-Central Regional next weekend. Colorado Mesa, on the other hand, drops its second-consecutive game to FLC this season and falls to 27-4 overall.

The Skyhawks have captured the program's sixth RMAC Tournament Championship in 11 appearances since 1993 and have gone back-to-back, regular season or tournament, for the first time in program history and have officially clinched the league's automatic bid to make its 13^th appearance at the NCAA Tournament.

Obi Agbim was named the RMAC Tournament's Most Valuable Player while Amondo Miller Jr., Brayden Carter, and Isaiah Thompson were named to the All-Tournament Team as well alongside Colorado Mesa's Trevor Baskin and Owen Koonce, Black Hills State's Matthew Ragsdale, and Colorado School of Mines' Majok Deng.

Colorado Mesa, who ran off with a 12-0 lead through the first four minutes before Junior Garbrah, who was one of two Skyhawks to register double-digit performances with 14 points on the night, finally made a pair of free throws to get on the board, saw its momentum quickly dissipate after Fort Lewis began to settle in an ultimately forced a 23-23 tie on a layup from Sekou Dembele.

Fueled by heartbreak in the regular season finale that saw the Skyhawks' chance to repeat as regular season champions, Fort Lewis put its foot on the gas with an Agbim three-pointer at the 4:56 minute mark to force what would be the final lead change of the evening, 31-30 in favor of FLC.

After entering the locker room with a 13-point advantage after Jhei-R Jones knocked down a layup with one second, head coach Bob Pietrack turned to his seniors, and the rest was history.

Fort Lewis led by as many as 18 points through the second half, holding the Mavericks to no closer than six points on two occasions, last on a pair of free throws from Christopher Speller with 3:05 remaining in the contest. Colorado Mesa would only convert on one of two shots from the field and four of six free throw attempts through the final five minutes while also committing four turnovers.

As the final buzzer sounded, it was Agbim who stood as the hero of the evening. Agbim, a six-foot-three junior guard who averaged 10.1 points in 23.9 minutes last season, posted a career-high 33 points on an astounding 10-12 shooting including 4-4 from beyond the arc and 9-11 from the free-throw line while also grabbing four rebounds and adding an assist and a steal.

The Skyhawks shot a dominating 60.8 percent (31-51) from the field against the Mavericks 44.4 percent (28-63), 50.0 percent (6-12) to 31.0 percent (13-42) from beyond the arc, and 78.3 percent (18-23) to 54.5 percent (6-11) at the charity stripe.

Colorado Mesa held the edge in rebound 29-28 and managed 16 second-chance points to Fort Lewis' eight. On the flip side, FLC won the turnover battle by a narrow 17-13 margin and picked up 23 points off of turnovers against CMU's 16.

The Mavericks' Trevor Baskin scored a team-high 23 points on 9-10 shooting while also matching Agbim with four treys from beyond the arc, while Speller added 16 points of his own the round out those to finish the night in double-figures scoring.

Notables
-Fort Lewis has claimed the program's sixth RMAC Tournament Championship in 11 title game appearances since 1993 and has now gone back-to-back for the first time in program history.
-FLC owns the second-most RMAC Tournament Championships among active members with six and trail only MSU Denver who has 11.
-Tonight marks the first time that FLC has defeated Western Slope rival CMU in the RMAC Tournament Championship game.
-The Skyhawks have now won two consecutive games against the Mavericks, three straight games in Brownson Arena, and now trail CMU 63-46 in the all-time series.
-Fort Lewis is the first team to win back-to-back RMAC Tournament Championships since Colorado Mesa did so in 2020 and 2021.
-Now in his 24^th year overall at FLC, head coach Bob Pietrack has won three RMAC Tournament Championships in his five title game appearances.
-Obi Agbim scored a career-high 33 points to top his previous high of 32 against Lamar Community College during his time at Northeastern Junior College back on Jan. 18, 2022.
-Fort Lewis' 60.8 percent shooting performance is a new season-high as a unit.
-The Skyhawks have now defeated the Mavericks in back-to-back Top 10 battles this season as ranked by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Selection Sunday
While Fort Lewis has clinched the RMAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Skyhawks final seeding and the location of the South-Central Regional will be decided tomorrow night, Sunday, Mar. 10, at 9:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time on NCAA.com.

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