DURANGO, Colo. – The Regis University men's basketball team (16-7, 13-4 RMAC) scored 54 second half point as they soared past the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks (10-13, 5-12 RMAC) 86-70 on Saturday night.
 
Senior Jarrett Brodbeck scored a game-high 17 points to surpass Tony DuCros as the all-time leading scorer in Regis University men's basketball program history. Brodbeck, rightfully so, broke the record on a three-point field-goal late in the game. He now sits atop the Regis scoring list with 1,817 career points.
 
How It Happened: The Skyhawks were on the receiving end of the tip-off but sophomore Tomas Auruskevicius recorded a steal just before their opening possession shot clock expired. His steal led to the first points of the game via a Jarrett Brodbeck layup.
 
Fort Lewis managed to tie the game at two apiece just before the Rangers erupted for a 7-0 run. After two offensive rebounds in the same possession, senior Ryan Beisty made his first three-point attempt of the game to ignite the RU run. Senior Jarrett Brodbeck followed with a three-point bucket of his own in which he turned into a four-point play after getting fouled.
 
Brodbeck accounted for six of the first nine Regis points but was held scoreless through the remainder of the first half. The Skyhawks matched the Rangers 7-0 run, erasing a seven-point deficit and tying the game at 15 with 13:47 on the clock.  
 
Both teams made one bucket each over the next three minutes but another 7-0 run in the favor of RU catapulted them to a 24-17 advantage with 6:53 to play in the first. Sophomore Brian Dawson assisted an Auruskevicius three-pointer that stretched the Regis led to eight, 27-19.
 
The Rangers scored their last five points of the first half from the foul-line. Dawson and Auruskevicius each accounted for two of the free-throws while freshman Toni Rocak made the fifth to give RU a 32-26 halftime edge.
 
Regis began the second half with three-straight missed three-pointers but Brodbeck broke the threshold to give the Rangers their first three points of the half. The Rangers scored just four points over the next four minutes, allowing the Skyhawks to come within two, 39-37, with 15 minutes to play.
 
RU averaged one three-pointer a minute over the next six minutes of play to create a 62-50 cushion for themselves. Five different Regis players contributed to the flurry of three-point daggers; junior Roberto Vercellino led the group with two while junior Christian Little, Beisty, Brodbeck, and senior Avonte Nelms all added one.
 
The Rangers defense held Fort Lewis scoreless on five-straight possessions. During that time, Auruskevicius made another trey to widen the RU advantage to 67-50. Little knocked-down a jumper on the next trip down the court to give Regis their largest lead of the game, 69-51.
 
Over the last five minutes of play, the Rangers outscored the Skyhawks 17-14 on their way to an 86-70 victory.
 
Game Notes: Brodbeck broke the school record for most career points with a three-pointer late in the same. Brodbeck (5-11 FG, 4-8 3PT) tallied a game-high 17 points while four of his teammates scored in double-digits. Little (4-6 FG, 3-3 3PT) added 15 while Auruskevicius (4-11 FG, 2-6 3PT), Rocak (5-5 FG) and Dawson (3-6 FG) had 13, 11 and 10, respectively.  
RU shot 50.9 percent (28-55) from the field and 48.3 percent (14-29) from behind the three-point line. They made 11 of their 14 three-pointers in the second half.
 
Regis out-rebounded Fort Lewis 35-37 as four different Rangers grabbed five-plus rebounds.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: The Regis University men's basketball team will return to Denver, Colorado to host Western State Colorado University on Friday, February 15 at 7 p.m.