DURANGO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball saw its two-game winning streak snapped here Saturday evening as the ThunderWolves trailed by 19 points (52-33) at half en route to suffering a 97-64 setback to 20th-ranked Fort Lewis College in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play at Whalen Gymnasium.

The Pack defense allowed a season-tying 97 points for the second straight game as they also allowed 97 points in their 103-97 win Friday at Adams State. 

With the setback, the Pack fall to 6-4 overall and 2-2 in the RMAC, while Fort Lewis improves to 8-1 overall and remains one of the remaining two undefeated teams in the league at 4-0. The loss dropped the Pack into a tie for fifth place in the RMAC standings.

Since opening the season with back-to-back losses at Midwestern State and Cameron, the Pack have won six of their last eight games with the lone losses coming at home last Friday to Chadron State (84-82) and at Fort Lewis on Saturday.

Senior guard Brevin Walter (Las Vegas, Nev./South Dakota Mines) paced the Pack offensively with 15 points, while senior guard Makiah Morris (San Diego, Calif./San Diego City College) added 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists. The third Pack player in double figures was junior guard Armon Muldrew (Perris, Calif./San Bernardino Valley) as he tallied 11 points off the bench.

Saturday's game was pretty much over in the opening 20 minutes as the Skyhawks scored 52 first half points as they made five treys, were 15-for-16 from the free throw line and held a 17-0 edge points off turnovers as the Pack committed 12 turnovers to just two for the Skyhawks.

For the game, Fort Lewis shot 47 percent from the field and made 11 treys and were 20-for-24 from the free throw line and scored 26 points off 17 Pack turnovers. Fort Lewis turned it over 11 times that led to seven points for the Pack.

The Pack held an early 3-2 lead following a trey by Walter just 30 seconds into the game and Walter would hit another trey with 18:36 left in the opening half to tie the game at 6-all.

FLC, though, responded by scoring nine of the next 13 points to take a 15-10 lead, but another trey from Walter and two free throws by Walter with 13:54 left in the opening half tied the game a 15-all.

The Pack would force the final tie of the game at 17-all following two free throws by Morris with 10:48 left in the first half.

FLC would respond by scoring 23 of the next 30 points to push out to a 40-24 lead. The lead would grow to as much as 19 following a trey by Malik Whitaker right before the buzzer gave the Skyhawks a 52-33 halftime lead.

After the game was tied at 17, FLC outscored the Pack, 35-16, over the final 10-plus minutes of the opening half.

Fort Lewis would open the second half by scoring seven straight points to push its lead to 60-33 just two minutes into the period.

The Pack, though, responded with a 12-2 run keyed by six points from Muldrew to pull within 62-45 with 14:17 left in the game.

After a trey by Samier Kinsler push the Skyhwaks lead back out to 20 points at 65-45, the Pack would answer back as they scored six straight points capped by a free throw from junior forward De'Shaun Cooper (Poway, Calif./Balboa School) to pull within 65-51 with 9:27 left in the game.

That would be as close as the Pack would get as the Skyhawks used a 26-6 run to push out to a 91-57 lead with 3:11 left in the game.

The Pack would score seven of the game's final 13 points to set the final margin.

Five Fort Lewis players scored in double figures as Whitaker led the way with 23 points, while Brayden Carter added 17 points and seven boards off the bench. Junior Garbrah and Obi Agbim each tallied 14 points and Isaiah Thompson had 10 points and six boards playing his former school. Thompson lettered the Pack for two seasons from 2021-23.

The Pack finished the game shooting a season-low 36 percent from the field and shot just 25 percent (7-for-28) from the 3-point line.

Fort Lewis held a 48-40 edge on the boards and blocked five shots. The Pack had four blocked shots in the loss.

The two teams combined to shoot 57 free throws on the night as the Pack were just 21-for-33 (63.6 percent) at the line, while FLC was 20-for-24 (83.3 percent) at the line.

CSU Pueblo will look to return to win column next Friday, Dec. 15 as they host South Dakota Mines for a 7:30 p.m. game in Massari Arena. The Hardrockers are 4-6 overall and 2-2 in the league following its 95-87 loss at home on Saturday to 18th-ranked MSU Denver.