Everything broke in favor of the Skyhawks in a critical moment in the second half. Unfortunately for Fort Lewis College, it already had fallen so far behind that it wasn’t enough.
Trailing by 13 with less than 4 minutes to play, the FLC women’s basketball team went on a big run to get within 63-60 with 1 minute, 3 seconds remaining. But two turnovers and two charging calls in the final minute prevented the Skyhawks from erasing an 18-point deficit, as they went on to fall 67-60 to CSU-Pueblo on Friday night at Whalen Gymnasium on the FLC campus.
It was another tough home loss for the Skyhawks (12-9, 9-8 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference), who are fighting to maintain a top-eight spot in the conference standings with five games to play now before the RMAC Shootout conference tournament.
“Coming off what we did last week, I thought our focus would be there,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said, mentioning his team’s two wins in New Mexico last week. Some of our important players were just in their own little shell and kind of running around not in tune with what we needed to be doing. That was frustrating because we needed good performances from the players that are getting a lot of minutes. I can’t say that we really got good performances across the board.”
FLC shot only 26.7 percent from the floor in the first half but got off to a great start in 3-point shooting, making 4-of-12 in the first half. That led to an 11-of-23 night from 3, a season high in made 3s for the Skyhawks.
The 3-point shooting paired with a 57.7 percent shooting performance in the second half helped the Skyhawks overcome cold stretches in the first 6 minutes of the second half and final 10 minutes of the first half.
“I felt like people were playing tired and weren’t in it,” FLC guard Kylie Santos said of the team’s sluggish play at times. “It was frustrating, but I think we pulled it back together. We can’t let that happen.”
The ThunderWolves quickly stretched their 32-23 halftime lead to 43-25 6 minutes into the half. A pair of 3s made by Michelle Turner helped the Skyhawks build momentum and cut their deficit to 54-44 with 8:26 to play. Dallas Dickerson, who scored a team-high 13 points for FLC, connected on another 3 and a pair of free throws to bring the Skyhawks to within eight points.
FLC’s defense turned up the pressure and forced a charge, two shot clock violations and a 10-second timeline violation in the final 2:30 of play, and an NBA-range Turner 3 got FLC within 63-58 with 1:30 to play.
Kate Bayes came up with a big steal and two layups in the game’s final minutes, including a layup that made it 63-60. FLC got the ball back down three, but CSU-Pueblo’s Ashley Piper made a diving steal to give the ball back to her team and effectively end the game.
Piper finished with game highs in points and rebounds with 19 and 11, respectively.
FLC struggled to defend a tall CSU-Pueblo team, especially with post players in foul trouble all game. Kaile Magazzeni, FLC’s senior forward, fouled out with 4:08 to play with two points and five rebounds. Bayes fouled out with six points, and junior forward Mary Brinton finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes.
FLC sent to ThunderWolves to the free-throw line 27 times, and they made 24.
“We were undisciplined on defense, which led to a lot of fouls,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said.
FLC committed 19 turnovers in the game to 16 for the ThunderWolves. CSU-Pueblo outrebounded the Skyhawks 36-31.
“That was one stat; when we turn the ball over 18 times or more, we lose games. We had 19,” Flores said.
Santos, who finished with 12 points on four made 3s for FLC, said it was hard for the guards to get passes into the lane against a long CSU-Pueblo team.
“They were collapsing on them a lot, but I think we missed a lot of opportunities when they were open. That’s on us,” Santos said.
Along with Piper, the ThunderWolves had four other plays score in double digits
Dickerson, a freshman from Alaska, stepped up in a big spot for the Skyhawks with 13 points in 18 minutes as she continues to gain confidence as a college player.
“The leaders on the team picked us up and told some of us we needed to step it up and get out there and just go,” Dickerson said.
FLC will look to bring more energy in another tough game Saturday against UC-Colorado Springs and its stars Abby Kirchoff and Brittany Hernandez.
“We just gotta work hard. We come out and we play hard for 40 minutes, we can play with anybody and we can beat anybody,” Santos said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
