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Brinton, Santos come through

FLC women make it four in a row

The two teams were miles apart in the standings but evenly matched on the court all season.

Fort Lewis College took a three-game winning streak into Gunnison to face the Western State Colorado University Mountaineers in the first of two weekend games to close out the women’s basketball regular season.

Western State star Jade McIntosh put on a show with 25 points, but FLC relied on two of its leaders in Mary Brinton and Kylie Santos to help carry the team to a 65-64 win for the team’s fourth in a row.

“Glad to get out of here with a win,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “I give Western credit, they played a great game. They played loose, and Jade played a great game. As a senior, she knows these are the last two games of her career. Give them credit, they played better than they have in a long time.”

FLC (16-9, 13-8 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) trailed Western State (4-21, 3-18 RMAC) 57-53 with less than 5 minutes to play. But Santos came up with big free throws, and a traditional three-point play by Kate Bayes helped FLC reclaim a 59-57 lead with 2:42 to play.

Brinton added a layup and a free throw to give FLC a 62-57 lead, and the Skyhawks hung on from there.

Brinton and Santos both finished with career highs in scoring – by a point each – with Brinton scoring 23 points and Santos 17.

“We needed it. It came down to the wire, and those two were very consistent when we needed them to be,” Flores said of Brinton and Santos. “We lost momentum in the game, and I was glad to see we had the fortitude enough to come back and regain momentum on the road. That’s a big thing, and it started with them.”

McIntosh finished with 25 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot for Western State. She helped dish out a few key assists late on what Flores described as “crazy shots” in the game’s final five minutes.

“They made it close, but we executed our offense and played well down the stretch,” Flores said.

FLC only made 18-of-27 free-throw attempts, but a few makes late helped solidify the win.

Kaile Magazzeni, the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week, had 11 points, eight rebounds and one blocked shot for FLC.

The Skyhawks will look to make it five wins in a row Saturday in Grand Junction, but it won’t be easy against a Colorado Mesa team that clinched at least a share of the RMAC regular-season title for the third consecutive year with a 80-65 win against Adams State on Saturday night. Colorado Mesa (21-4, 18-3 RMAC) hasn’t lost a home game since Jan. 2012 and is undefeated at home under current head coach Taylor Wagner.

But Flores said he believes his team has as good of a chance as any, especially after FLC hung tight with the Mavericks in a 52-50 home loss on Dec. 20. FLC also beat Colorado Mesa in the regular season finale a year ago, though it was on FLC’s home floor.

“They have a great home court and the fans. It’s loud and hard to play, and their student section is relentless the whole game,” Flores said. “You have to be super composed. If you lose your composure at any point, that’s when they go on runs.

“If we take care of the ball, rebound and play our normal defense, we will be in it. We want to keep it tight going into the last 10 minutes of the game, and then we’ll have a chance.”

FLC’s chances of earning a home game in the RMAC Shootout took a hit Friday, as both CSU-Pueblo and Colorado Christian won their games. FLC will need CSU-Pueblo to lose at Regis on Saturday to have a chance to get into the top four in the standings.

“I haven’t even begun to look at the scenarios,” Flores said. “Right now, our goal is to get two wins this weekend. We got the first, and I won’t look at the tournament picture until after Saturday night.”

jlivingston@durangoherald.com



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