In Friday night’s game at Colorado Mesa, the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team badly missed All-Conference senior Mary Rambo, and head coach Jason Flores was hoping for someone to fill her shoes.
One night later, in Salt Lake City, the Skyhawks came together as a group and got the job done with a complete team effort that snapped a three-game losing streak with a 72-62 win against Westminster.
“I give a lot of credit to our bench,” Fort Lewis head coach Jason Flores said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “We had to do something to turn the game around, and it was the bench players who led the charge.”
The Skyhawks’ bench was dominant as it outscored the opponents 36-17 and led huge second half run that tilted the outcome in FLC’s favor. Astrea Reed’s 16 points led the Skyhawks, but it was the efforts from Sydni Brandon, Dallas Dickerson, Emily McCue and Alyssa Yocky off the bench and on the defensive end that did in the Griffins.
Fort Lewis trailed by two at halftime, and the gap grew wider after a sluggish start to the third quarter led to a seven point Westminster lead at 42-35.
Flores made some substitutions, implemented a full-court press and, suddenly, the Skyhawks looked like a different team. The Fort Lewis reserves forced turnovers and turned up the tempo in a crucial stretch of basketball that led to a 12-0 Skyhawks run and completely changed the rhythm of the game.
Westminster never matched the energy of Fort Lewis’ reserves. The Skyhawks finished on a 37-20 run and cruised to a much-needed victory.
McCue came off the bench to score 13 points, while Yocky’s five points and 10 rebounds were welcomed in the absence of FLC’s All-Conference post player. Rambo didn’t travel with the team this weekend after taking an elbow to the face in a game last week that resulted in a concussion. The Skyhawks were outrebounded 48-35 without her in Friday’s 58-50 loss, but Yocky and Ande Lampert led a Fort Lewis front line that outrebounded Westminster 40-25 on Saturday.
“Alyssa and Ande are battling injuries, too, so they really gave us some tough minutes,” Flores said.
The Skyhawks (9-7, 5-6 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) came out ice cold from long range, going 0-for-10 in the first half from beyond the 3-point line. Meanwhile, Westminster (6-9, 3-8 RMAC) lit up the net from 3-point land in the first half shooting 40 percent on 5-for-12.
The second half defensive pressure allowed for some quick and easy baskets for Fort Lewis and had Westminster struggling to get organized. When Fort Lewis grabbed the lead, it never looked back.
Dickerson finished with nine points. Kate Bayes and Lampert had eight points in the win.
After back-to-back weekends on the road, the Skyhawks will be back home for a 5:30 p.m. matchup with Western New Mexico on Friday at Whalen Gymnasium.
jfries@durangoherald.com
