DURANGO, Colo. --- The Western Colorado men's basketball team opened its season with a 89-69 loss at Fort Lewis in a non-RMAC matchup Saturday at Whalen Gymnasium.
The contest came about after Black Hills State and Chadron State had to postpone home contests against the Mountaineers set for Friday and Saturday at Paul Wright Gym due to COVID-19 concerns. With both Western and Fort Lewis available (BHSU and CSC were scheduled to play the Skyhawks as well), the teams agreed to play in Fort Lewis on Saturday.
In the contest, it was a 10-minute stretch in the first half that did Western (0-1) in as the Mountaineers led 9-4 with 14:02 remaining in the first half before the Skyhawks (1-0) went on a 24-5 run capped by a dunk from FLC's Will Wittman to make it 28-14 with 4:12 left in the first half and eventually trailed 38-21 at the half.
Western trailed by as much as 20 early in the second half, but cut the lead down to 11 after a
Matthew Ragsdale 3-pointer and a three-point play on back-to-back possessions to make it 64-53 with 9:20 remaining.Â
That's as close as Western got, however, as FLC pulled away for the 20-point victory.
Four players reached double figures for the Mountaineers, led by
Jackson Ehrlin as the senior post had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds to go with four blocks.
Cole Sienknecht had 15 points, seven assists and four rebounds for the Mountaineers (going 3-for-4 from 3-point range), redshirt freshman
Grant Wilkinson in his first collegiate game had 12 points, five assists and two assists while
Avery Rembao had 12 points and six rebounds before fouling out.
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Dunnell Stafford came off the bench to lead five Skyhawks in double figures with 18 points while Riley Farris nearly had a triple double with 15 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
These two teams meet again 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Gunnison in an RMAC contest. No spectators will be allowed at this contest or any Mountaineer home event indefinitely. The game can be watched at
GoMountaineers.com/live.
