It’s only the first weekend of the schedule, but the results will have a big impact on the rest of the season for the women’s basketball team at Fort Lewis College.
The Skyhawks will open the 2017-18 season by hosting the Conference Challenge Event, which will feature games against the University of Texas-Permian Basin at 11 a.m. Friday and Eastern New Mexico University at 7 p.m. Saturday at Whalen Gymnasium. South Dakota Mines, another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference squad, also will be in Durango to take on the two teams from the Lone Star Conference.
“Both games are huge region games for us,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “There’s a bit of an unknown for us, but we have to be ready to adjust.”
Expectations are high for the Skyhawks this season, who return several key players – such as last year’s leading scorer and All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference first team selection Briana Clah and second leading scorer Kayla Herrera, who was last year’s RMAC freshman of the year – and a loaded freshman class led by Vivian Gray.
The Skyhawks enter the season ranked No. 22 nationally in the preseason coaches poll. Both UTPB and ENMU are unranked.
However, FLC has dealt with injuries during the preseason. The Skyhawks were without Clah, Kelsey Wainwright and Alyssa Yocky for their scrimmage against the University of New Mexico, which they lost 84-68, on Sunday in Albuquerque.
Fortunately for FLC, Flores said Wainwright will be back in action and Clah will be available to play limited minutes after she returned to practice this week.
It will be the second season in a row the Skyhawks face the Falcons and the Greyhounds. FLC beat UTPB 56-50 and ENMU 73-69 last season when the Greyhounds hosted the event in Portales, New Mexico.
UTPB enters the game with new head coach Rae Boothe leading the Falcons. Boothe has had great success in the past. She spent seven seasons leading Friends University, an NAIA program in Wichita, Kansas. She guided the Falcons to six consecutive 20-win seasons and two NAIA Sweet 16s behind an up-tempo style of play.
“It’s a new coach and a completely new system,” Flores said of UTPB. “It’ll be a different style of play than they had last year that’s for sure. You have to be able to handle pressure, and to be honest that’s something we don’t see a lot of. They really extend different zone defenses and trap out of it a lot. It’s a hard game to have early in the season because you just haven’t had time to prepare for that kind of style.”
UTPB went 7-20 last season and returned its first and third-leading scorers from that team in seniors Briana Caro and Sierra LaGrande, who averaged 13.1 and 8.3 points per game, respectively. Caro also led the Falcons with 6.1 rebounds per game.
There’s more familiarity between Greyhounds and the Skyhawks, who have met each of the last three seasons. FLC won all three of those meetings, but each one was by a margin of four points or fewer.
“They’re a senior-laden team with a lot of experience and had a great year (last year),” Flores said of ENMU. “We love playing this game because they are going to be successful the rest of the year. It’s a great game for us because in the region you want to play those tough games for your strength of schedule. They’re a team that we know, win or lose, they’re going to have a really good year.”
The Greyhounds finished 20-9 last season and returned the bulk of last year’s offensive production, as they get back their first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth leading scorers, led by senior Mikaehla Connor, who averaged 11.2 points per game a season ago.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
If you go
Who: Fort Lewis College, Eastern New Mexico, South Dakota Mines, Texas-Permian Basin
What: Conference Challenge
When: Friday, Saturday
Where: Whalen Gymnasium, Durango
Listen Live: KIUP 930 AM, 97.3, 106.3 FM
Twitter: @karltschneider
