FLC men's basketball team drops NCAA playoff game to Nebraska-Omaha

Published: Friday, March 15, 2008 by Office of Alumni Relations
Author: Andrew Beardsley, Sports Information Director

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WINONA, Minn. — The Fort Lewis College men's basketball team fell 82-76 to the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the first round of the NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament tonight.

The Skyhawks (24-6) ended their season as the No. 12 ranked team in Division II and won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season title with an 16-3 record. FLC also won the RMAC Mile High Shootout.

After trailing for most of the first 30 minutes of Saturday night's game, the Skyhawks grabbed a 52-50 lead at the 10:03 mark of the second half. The teams exchanged the lead for the next two minutes until Ryan Johnson (Aurora, Colo.) connected on a fast break layup with 8:15 remaining to give FLC a one-point lead. FLC then rattled off the next five points to increase their lead to 63-57 with 6:02 left in the game. The Mavericks did not give up, however, rallying with a 9-0 run over the next 2:14 to reclaim a 3-point lead.

The Mavericks improved their lead to as many as seven in the final minutes, with the Skyhawks getting as close as two points with just 19 seconds left. UNO connected on all four of their final free throws to ice the first round victory.

The Skyhawks shot 35.6% from the field and 30.8% from downtown, while the Mavericks shot 50% from both the field and beyond the arc. In a statistical category they usually lead in, the Skyhawks were outscored 17-10 in fast break points.

Tim Crowell (Long Beach, Calif.) led the Skyhawks with 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from the line. He added four rebounds, four assists and one steal in the loss.

Devon Manning (Kirtland, N.M.) finished his impressive Skyhawk career with a 20-point, five-rebound performance. He went a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line. After four seasons at FLC, Manning finished his career with 1,310 points — good enough for 10th on the FLC career scoring list.

Ryan Yates (Arvada, Colo.) came off the bench to record his first career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

The Skyhawks won a program-best 24 games and recorded a school-record .800 winning percentage.

The 2007-08 athletic season saw five Skyhawk teams qualify for the NCAA playoffs. Men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball, women's basketball and men's basketball all lost their first-round playoff games. The previous best performance for FLC was 2006-07, which saw men's soccer, volleyball, women's cross country and men's basketball all qualify for the NCAA playoffs.

Author Andrew Beardsley is the Sports Information Director at Fort Lewis College. He traveled with the men's basketball team to the NCAA playoffs. He can be reached at 970-247-7441 or beardsley_a@fortlewis.edu.

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