IGNACIO – Two big wins against South Central Region opponents were everything the Skyhawks wanted.
A night after beating St. Mary’s, a top-40 team in the country and fifth-ranked team in the region, the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team closed out the Skyhawk Classic tournament with a 101-97 victory against Texas-Permian Basin at the SunUte Community Center in Ignacio.
“I thought it was a very good event for us, and I thought it was virtually a home court, even though it was considered neutral,” FLC head coach Bob Hofman said. “We played two really good teams, and we’re very fortunate to get out with two victories.”
Saturday night’s tournament finale was a physical battle between two athletic teams. A night after rolling out four guards alongside star senior center Alex Herrera, the Skyhawks played a much bigger lineup when the starting five weren’t all on the floor together to counter the athleticism of the Falcons.
Twenty-one of the Falcons’ 37 first-half points came from behind the 3-point line, and they added another six 3-pointers in the second half on 10 attempts.
Behind Herrera’s team-high 25 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots, the Skyhawks controlled play in the paint. They outrebounded the Falcons 43-34.
Herrera did most of his damage from the free throw line, as he hit 17-of-24 attempts. FLC was 44-of-61 from the line in the game.
“We saw (Friday night) that this team gets out and pressures and uses a lot of hand checks, so we knew that we would be a shooting a lot of free throws,” Herrera said. “We gotta step up and make a bit more, but we did a good job.”
Cade Kloster caught fire and hit back-to-back 3-point buckets, and a big Herrera dunk helped FLC gain momentum and separation to extend a 28-20 lead to 48-37 by halftime.
The Skyhawks’ advantage ballooned to 68-51 after a Kofi Joseph’s dribble drive that ended with a layup at the rim, followed by a Joseph 3-pointer.
But a big traditional three-point play followed by another 3-point bucket brought the Falcons’ deficit to 69-62, as Herrera received a 3-minute breather.
Lucas Archuleta, who saw big minutes off the bench with starting point guard Will Morse battling early foul trouble, converted a layup right before the media timeout and was fouled in the process. His free throw reinstated the Skyhawks’ 10-point lead. Archuleta finished the game with 15 points.
“Once I get in there, I just gotta be confident,” Archuleta said. “Anybody on this team can step up, and we’ve got a lot of guys that are good. You just gotta be ready whenever your name is called and be ready to play hard.”
FLC extended its lead back to 16 points after a big blocked shot by guard Rasmus Bach that led to an Archuleta 3.
On the next possession, Herrera converted a three-point play.
But the Falcons came back and cut the FLC lead to 94-88 with 1 minute, 30 seconds to play. Archuleta again came up big with a layup to extend the lead to 96-88, and a Jared Smith steal gave FLC the ball back with 1 minute to go.
Archuleta converted another pair of free throws to push the lead back to 98-88, and FLC hung on from there.
Smith finished with 14 points, and Kloster and Morse each had 10.
Madison Turner scored a game-high 26 points for the Falcons.
FLC will play again at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside their home Whalen Gymnasium against Northern New Mexico.
“We played two good teams this weekend. You can’t get any better than getting two wins out of it, too,” Herrera said. “We have to come to work Monday and play games Tuesday and Thursday, and we’re looking forward to those as well.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
Rattlers ring up an 0-2 start for Western New Mexico
IGNACIO – The St. Mary’s Rattlers jumped out to a 19-0 lead and didn’t look back en route to their first win of the season, a 77-52 victory over Western New Mexico on Saturday night at the SunUte Community Center in Ignacio.
A night after losing a big South Central Region game against Fort Lewis College, the fifth-ranked team in the region dominated a Mustangs team picked to finish last in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
The Mustangs (0-2) responded to a poor first half in which they shot 15 percent with a 45.5 percentage in the second half. Still, it wasn’t enough to gain ground on St. Mary’s (1-1), who shot 45.5 percent for the game.
Kriston Minor and Marvin Whitt each scored 15 points for the Rattlers of the Heartland Conference. Isaiah Matthews added 12 points.
Gavin Wood was the only Mustangs player in double digits with 11 points in 16 minutes off the bench.
St. Mary’s also won the rebounding battle 45-27.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
