Skyhawks Win Another Nail-Biter
By Matthew T. Roy
103-96 was the score as the final buzzer sounded off on another Fort Lewis College men’s basketball overtime victory. This one occurred against the Adams State University Grizzlies on the Tuesday night of finals week at home in Whalen Gymnasium.
With the score 90-87 and only 9.6 seconds on the clock, Adams’ senior guard Brandon Sly rose up and nailed a three to send the game into overtime.
“We could’ve fouled him,” FLC head coach Bob Pietrack said. “Between Eastern hitting a miracle three [in the first game of the season] and Western hitting a miracle three [on Saturday] we were going to play the odds that a miracle three wasn’t gonna take place. But three of three so no chance that I’m going to Las Vegas anytime soon.”
This game was a tumultuous one for both teams. Between the two squads there were 50 fouls called with each team having one player foul out, FLC’s senior guard Daniel Hernandez and ASU’s senior center Mike Thomas.
The first half saw a lot of fouls get called on ASU as they had 13 by the intermission compared to FLC’s seven. The Grizzly head coach even had a technical foul called on him late in the half after he was livid over a call and was yelling relentlessly at the ref.
Fort Lewis ended the first half on a 16-5 run which gave them the 11 point advantage going into halftime, 45-34.
In the second half, though, all those fouls that were going FLC’s way started going the way of the Grizzlies.
By the 10 minute mark in the second half of the game, FLC had been called for 13 fouls compared to only three for ASU.
The result of this was having four players with three fouls and two more players with four fouls each. With three minutes left in the game, Hernandez fouled out.
“It wasn’t very fun playing without Daniel,” Pietrack said. “He’s such a big cog in our wheel so when he went out other guys had to step up. Rasmus and DJ and Martinez. Semadeni tonight was outstanding. I thought Semadeni tonight was a true hawk tonight in rivalry game so, ya know, these games are hard guys.”
This Fort Lewis team is deep enough that they can afford losses like that and keep pushing through. By the end of the game, FLC had seven players with double digit points, which speaks to the depth of the team.
“With Semi stepping up tonight and getting double figures and I think Riley too it’s great to have those bench players come in and help us with these big games,” FLC senior forward Rasmus Bach said.
This game was yet another nail-biter for FLC and its fans, and it seems like every team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference can beat any other team on any given night on the men’s side.
“I think it’s the toughest conference in division II,” Bach said. “You know, everyone says the Texas teams because they are more athletic and maybe a little faster but we have to play back-to-back with so many shooters and, it’s very hard to stay fresh.
This win improves FLC to 8-1 (5-0 in RMAC) while this loss drops ASU to 5-6 (3-2).
FLC’s next game will come friday against the Westminster University Griffins, 7-1 (3-1) in Utah at 7:30 p.m.
“I know they have one of the best players in the league,” senior center Brandon Wilson said. “He is a big guy so us bigs are going to have to do a good job at containing him at least because the offense is going to go through him so we have got to control him and I think we will have a good chance at winning.”
Alex Semadeni was not quoted in this story because he is the Editor-in-Chief of The Independent and that would be a conflict of interest.