DURANGO, Colorado — In the quarterfinal of the RMAC Championships, the Grizzlies Men's Basketball team falls to Fort Lewis by a final score of 88-72. The loss ends an outstanding season by the Grizzly Men who have had one of the best seasons in recent years. The loss puts Adams State at a final record of 18-11 as the season comes to an end.
Diving into today's game further, the difference maker for the Grizzlies was their inability to ever truly get their offense going throughout tonight's loss. With only 72 points on the night, the Grizzlies were 14 points off of their season average of 86.1 which finished second in the conference. Offensively, the Grizzlies finished with 26 turnovers on the night, while shooting 43.3% from the floor, 29.2% from the 3-point line, and 76.5% from the free throw. With the lack of consistency on the offensive side of the ball, along with their turnover problems, Adams State could not keep up with a Fort Lewis offense who finished the night with 88 points and a shooting percentage of 48.6% on 74 shots.
On the defensive end of the ball, the Grizzlies had some success creating turnovers with 16 forced turnovers but struggled to out rebound Fort Lewis, along with keeping them out of the paint. Overall in the game, Fort Lewis collected 8 more rebounds than the Grizzlies which led to 18 second chance points, while scoring 56 points in the paint. With this much success collecting second chance points, and the ability to score points throughout the night in the painted area, the Fort Lewis offense got on a role that unfortunately carried throughout tonight giving them the final edge over the Grizzlies.
Individually for the Grizzlies, they were led by four of their Senior leaders; Dillan Baker, Luke Williams, Jarmell Johnson, and Wyatt Helming. All four men scored in double-digits with Baker and Williams leading the way with 19 and 18 points respectively, and Johnson, finishing close behind with 17 points of his. Helming rounded out the scoring for the four men, finishing the night with 10 points. Between the four men they scored 64 of the Grizzlies 72 points, while also collecting 19 rebounds, and 12 assists. Overall, it was a great performance between the four men but was just not quite enough to get past Fort Lewis in the first round of the playoffs.
For the Grizzlies, the loss brings an end to an outstanding 2025-26 season in which they were able to head to the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-2021 season, while also winning the most games in a season since the 2014-15 season 11 years ago. With the end of such an outstanding season, Coach Kenny Tripp will look to continue building the Grizzlies Men's Basketball team into a team that is a consistent threat year in and year out in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
