The 11th ranked Fort Lewis College Skyhawks Men’s basketball team fell to the 22nd ranked Colorado School of the Mines Orediggers Friday night at Whalen Gymnasium 94-82 in overtime.
The loss ended FLC’s 30-game home winning streak and ten game winning streak overall. The Skyhawks now hold a very narrow lead in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference being 22-4 (17-3) and Mines being 21-4 (16-3). Although, Mines does now own the tiebreak because of this head to head victory.
Mines came out strong trying to get the ball down low in the post early and often. They tried to use their size to their advantage with both of their big men, Adam Laine and Ben Clare, having weight advantages on the Skyhawk front line.
Both teams did well defensively in the first half, holding each other to well below their season averages for points scored. Mines did especially well, keeping the Skyhawks off their game and forcing them to shoot just 40.6 percent from the field and only 30 percent from behind the arc in the first half, both percentages well below the Skyhawks season averages of 53 percent and 43 percent respectively.
The Orediggers went into halftime up 31-29 despite their leading scorer, Gokul Natesan, being held to five points and the team shooting only 39.4 percent from the field.
Mines came out of the intermission with a plan to help a lot inside and make the Skyhawks shoot jump shots instead of letting leading scorers, Josh Blaylock and Rasmus Bach, get into the paint and draw fouls.
The Orediggers quickly extended their lead to ten after going on a 14-6 run in the first six minutes of the half.
The game was called very, very tightly by the refs. By the end of the game, the Skyhawks had four key players fouled out, the first of which happened with 8:51 left in the game when Daniel Hernandez got his fifth foul.
Mines stretched their lead to 15 points with 6:25 left in regulation.The Skyhawks were in desperate need of a run.
And that is exactly what ensued. The Skyhawks leading scorers, Blaylock and Bach, took over the scoring load, especially Blaylock, and the FLC defense quickly improved as the Skyhawks closed the game out on a 25-10 run to tie the game at 74 and send the game to overtime.
Blaylock ended regulation with 32 points on 10-20 shooting.
In the overtime, the Skyhawks seemingly ran out of gas and able bodies in the overtime as Alex Semadeni, Daniel Hernandez, Rasmus Bach, and Ross Buchman all had fouled out.
The Orediggers pulled away in the overtime and ended up getting the victory 94-82.
The key to the game for the Orediggers was the huge discrepancy in free throw attempts and makes. Mines ended the game 29-45 from the free throw line compared to FLC only shooting 17-22. This is a difference of 12 points which was exactly the difference in the game.
The Skyhawks will still have a chance at the RMAC title when they play Adams State Tuesday night at Whalen Gymnasium. It is senior night and the Skyhawks will want to come out firing in this must-win game.