Fort Lewis FLC 13-2,8-1 RMAC

Regis (CO) Regis 8-7,5-4 RMAC

Fort Lewis FLC

13-2,8-1 RMAC

Final

Jan. 13, 2024

Regis (CO) Regis

8-7,5-4 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Fort Lewis FLC	42	39	81
Regis (CO) Regis	43	37	80

Summary
Box Score

Billy Saunders, Regis Athletics

Regis freshman Ty Cox finished with 14 points on Saturday.

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | Jan 13 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Five Rangers score in double-figures, but upset bid of No. 9/16 Fort Lewis falls just shy in waning seconds

DENVER, Colo. — The Regis University men's basketball team pushed No. 9/16 Fort Lewis College to the brink on Saturday, but had its upset bid fall just shy as the visiting Skyhawks escaped the Regis Field House with an 81-80 final.

Regis (8-7 overall, 5-4 RMAC) led for nearly 31 minutes of game action Saturday and had five different players score in double-figures, putting themselves in position to knock off the defending RMAC Tournament champion Skyhawks (13-2 overall, 8-1 RMAC).

"Our team competed extremely hard and it was a tight, physical game all night long. All the indicators suggest our team is heading in the right direction and I'm happy about that," said Regis head men's basketball coach, Brady Bergeson. "We're not happy about the outcome, obviously, and we did almost enough to get it done. This is a young group and we've still got some hard lessons we'll learn, but we'll just continue to improve on our habits."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Regis redshirt junior guard Eddy Egun almost played hero on Saturday as the shooting guard rose up and buried a go-ahead 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining for three of his team-high 15 points, giving the Rangers an 80-79 advantage in the waning seconds.

On the ensuing possession, the Rangers were able to force the initial stop, but gave up an offensive rebound with 6.7 seconds remaining and fouled FLC forward Malik Whitaker on his put-back attempt.

Whitaker, who led all scorers with 24 points, stepped to the line and hit two free-throws in the pressure cooker to put the Skyhawks, who were just 50 percent (15-for-30) at the foul line Saturday, back in front.

The offensive rebound was the 24^th of the game for the Skyhawks, who finished with a 21-7 advantage in second-chance points; none bigger than Whitaker's two free throws that proved to be the difference.

"We really sat down hard, defensively, in that last possession and forced the shot that we wanted. We got the miss, but we didn't block out at the end and that was the bullet that killed us tonight," Bergeson said. "That last one in particular is the one that sticks out, but the 23 offensive rebounds before painful too. But we'll learn our lessons on that."

The Rangers would go back to Egun in the closing seconds, but his second potential game-winning 3-pointer fell just shy to seal the 81-80 final.

Joining Egun in double-figures on Saturday was sophomore guard Chase Mayo Harmon and freshman guard Ty Cox with 14 points apiece, while the duo of junior guard Trey Bryant and graduate student forward Tarig Eisa each added 10 points, as well.

The Rangers' balanced offense and shot making helped put them in position to score the upset Saturday as Regis opened the game making seven of its first 10 3-point attempts and finishing the first half at a sizzling 10-for-18 (55.6%) behind the arc.

"Fort Lewis puts so much ball pressure on you that they basically play press and release basketball. And when they do that, guys are open when you break the pressure and I thought we did a tremendous job of finding open people, taking open shots and taking advantage of what they gave us," Bergeson said.

Regis would lead by as many as nine points in the first half at 38-29 with 4:11 remaining, but Fort Lewis closed the half on a 13-4 run to whittle RU's lead down to 43-42 entering the halftime locker rooms and set up the exciting back-and-forth second half.

GAME NOTES

Regis shot an even 50 percent (27-for-54) from the field on Saturday and were 16-of-33 (48.5%) from 3-point range.
The Rangers defense held the Skyhawks, the top scoring offense in the RMAC entering the weekend, to 40.8 percent (29-for-71) shooting.
Saturday's game featured nine ties and 13 lead changes.
Mayo Harmon racked up a career-high eight assists from the off-guard position.
Eisa led all Rangers with six rebounds.

UP NEXT
With this past weekend's split, and Saturday's strong effort against a nationally ranked foe, the Rangers will look to build off the positives and they now get ready to head on the road next weekend to face No. 23 Colorado School of Mines (7:30 p.m. Friday) and MSU Denver (6 p.m. Saturday).

"I hope the guys can see how far we've come and how close we are to being able to beat a top-25 national team. You have to do a lot of things right and be consistent with that," Bergeson said. "We have a young group that is learning a lot of lessons and I hope that we do take with us some respective that (FLC) is a really good basketball team we just played and we feel like we gave one away a little bit. I hope that burns inside of our guys and translate into more motivation to get ready for the next opponents because we are getting closer to where we want to be."

Print Friendly Version