The Fort Lewis men’s basketball team has shown its depth in numerous ways throughout the season. In the biggest game of the season, the Skyhawks bigs dominated and led Fort Lewis to an 87-73 win against Colorado School of Mines in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference semifinals.
Inside Colorado Mesa’s Brownson Arena, the trio of junior forwards Isaiah Thompson, Brayden Carter and senior center Sekou Dembele combined for 30 points and 24 rebounds Friday night. Fort Lewis outscored Colorado School of Mines 42-18 in the paint and out-rebounded the Orediggers 44-29 including a 20-5 offensive rebounding advantage.
“You want the monsters man, that's the truth,” Fort Lewis head coach Bob Pietrack said. “We got some and we got good ones. We're able to throw a lot of bodies at a team. Sekou and Brayden were excellent at the five tonight and of course Isaiah had a special performance not only with the stat sheet but anybody who was watching the game, the energy in which he played.”
Fort Lewis improved to 27-3 overall after it shot 41% from the field, 33% from 3-point range and 79% from the free-throw line in the win. The Skyhawks move on to play top-seed Colorado Mesa in the RMAC championship game at Colorado Mesa tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Colorado School of Mines shot 45% from the field, 44% from 3-point range and 84% from the free-throw line in the loss.
Junior guard Obi Agbim led the Skyhawks with 20 points on 8-18 shooting from the field and 4-7 shooting from 3-point range. Redshirt sophomore forward Amondo Miller Jr. had 13 points on 4-9 shooting from the field, 1-3 from 3-point range and 4-5 from the free-throw line along with six rebounds. Carter and Thompson each scored 12 points as well.
“Amondo plays really hard,” Pietrack said. “He's only a sophomore and his role right now is as a spark off the bench defensively. He's a very good attacker on offense... Really all year long he's been excellent for us. But tonight, he was really good. There's so many things that don't show up on the stat sheet as far as just deflections and being in the gap and doing all the things it takes to win.”
Majok Deng led Colorado School of Mines with 20 points on 8-18 shooting from the field, 3-4 from downtown and 5-6 from the free-throw line. Riley Schroeder had 14 and Markus Pastorcic-Straun had 12 as well for the Orediggers.
Colorado School of Mines got off to a hot start and made three 3-pointers in transition to get out to a 12-3 early lead. Fort Lewis responded with some finishes inside but Deng had nine in the first four minutes and the Orediggers led 14-8 with 15:54 left.
The Skyhawks continued to get in the paint and get to the free-throw line while the Orediggers continued to hit from the 3-point lines. Colorado School of Mines led 20-12 with 14 minutes left after the Orediggers started 5-9 from 3-point range.
“We give up long shots,” Pietrack said. “So we want to control the paint and not give up paint points. It was 42 to 18 in the paint. Are we going to give up threes? Yeah, we're going to give up some. We're going to give up some tomorrow too. But as the game goes on and our pressure continues, a lot of those shots tend not to go in as much.”
The holes in the Skyhawks’ defense that were visible in the beginning of the game closed up. Colorado School of Mines was forced into some contested midrange jumpers and missed. Dembele got the ball deep inside, was fouled and made two free throws to put the Skyhawks up 32-31 with 5:58 left in the first half.
Fort Lewis sped up the Mines offense, forced numerous turnovers and forced contested shots which resulted in fast break points for Fort Lewis. The Skyhawks’ 17-2 run was capitalized by a strong drive by Miller Jr. to put Fort Lewis up 42-33 with 3:01 left.
Colorado School of Mines made five 3-pointers in the first six minutes of the first half. It made one over the next 14 minutes and Fort Lewis led 47-39 at halftime.
The beginning of the second half was the Agbim and Dembele show. Agbim hit two 3-pointers and Dembele dominated in the paint for two easy finishes to put the Skyhawks up 58-45 with 17:07.
“We have two older players and Romack, the freshman of the year, is an outstanding player but he’s still young,” Pietrack said. “We thought we had an advantage there and wanted to get it into him (Dembele). Colorado Mines, historically doesn't double the post. So we figured that would be the same and it was.”
But the Orediggers said hold my Gatorade and hit three 3-pointers to keep the game within reach at 58-54 with 15 minutes left to go in the second. But the Skyhawks got inside the paint and pushed the lead back to 66-54 with 12:50 to go with a layup by Thompson.
Colorado School of Mines went zone and Fort Lewis took advantage. Thompson crashed the glass and finished plus the foul to put Fort Lewis up 78-62. Colorado School of Mines looked out of sync and turned it over on the inbounds.
A drive by senior guard Malik Whitaker and finish put the Skyhawks up 87-71 with 1:40 to go and sealed the game.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
