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Five double-doubles, five wins

Herrera leads FLC men past MidAmerica Nazarene

Eight days felt like a long layoff for the Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team.

After playing four games in seven days to open the regular season, the FLC Skyhawks had more than a week off to prepare for a weekend series in Golden. First up was MidAmerica Nazarene, a team that reached the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Final Four a season ago.

Though they went through a few lulls Friday night, the Alex Herrera-led Skyhawks had no problem improving to 5-0 with a 71-52 win against the Pioneers (1-7) from Olathe, Kansas.

“Defense had to carry us. We did not shoot the ball well, and we were very sluggish,” FLC associate head coach Bob Pietrack said. “When you make shots, you get energy. When you miss shots, it zaps energy. It was a classic case of that.”

Herrera, the Skyhawks’ star center from Ignacio, had game highs in points and rebounds with 18 points and 12 rebounds, good for his fifth consecutive double-double to open the season. He added to his FLC career blocked shots record with another six.

“He’s a monster down there. He’s playing at a high level, and even though he didn’t have his best game by any means, he still got it done,” Pietrack said.

Junior guard Cade Kloster also got into double digits for the Skyhawks, who shot just 37.7 percent from the field and 8-of-32 from behind the 3-point line. Kloster finished with 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

“Kloster and (Jared) Smith brought a lot of energy in the last minutes to make sure they didn’t come back on us. They both were very key to us winning the game,” Pietrack said. “Jared brings the energy every night regardless of how he shoots the ball, and that’s what you need from a fourth-year junior.”

Junior transfer guard Kofi Josephs added another eight points for FLC on 2-of-7 shooting from 3 and one big dunk after a steal. Sophomore guard Will Morse had a game-high six assists without a turnover for the Skyhawks..

FLC scored 22 points off 17 turnovers by the Pioneers. The Skyhawks limited themselves to nine turnovers while committing 11 fouls all game.

“We talked about not fouling them because they are a very good free-throw shooting team. It was a point of emphasis,” Pietrack said.

The Skyhawks also won the rebounding battle 41-38, and FLC converted 13 second-chance points off 11 offensive rebounds.

MidAmerica Nazarene shot 35.7 percent from the field and hit 5-of-15 3-pointers. No Pioneers player reached double-figure scoring. Cale Brubaker led the team with nine points, and Nate Launius had eight points and seven rebounds. Aleksander Zivkovic, a 6-10, 235-pount center from Serbia, had the tough task of going against Herrera, and he was held scoreless with a team-high nine rebounds before fouling out.

Herrera vs. Aleksandar Zivkovic, 6-10, 235 from Serbia

FLC will stay in Golden another day to play Division II University of California-San Diego (2-1) at 5 p.m. Saturday. It is the final non-conference game of the year for the Skyhawks.

“San Diego is a very good team, as they’ve shown this year by beating a top-10 team (Cal Poly-Pomona) on the road,” Pietrack said. “We know how good they are and have to play extremely well to get the result we want.”

jlivingston@durangoherald.com



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