In what’s becoming a common theme for the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team this season, the Skyhawks jumped out to a double-digit first-half lead Friday only to watch it slowly slip away as the night went on.
Fort Lewis (8-7, 4-6 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) allowed a miniscule six first-quarter points and held the Mavericks to a 3-for-24 start from the field, but it wasn’t good enough as Colorado Mesa stormed back from a sluggish start to win 58-50. It was the third loss in a row for Fort Lewis which hasn’t won in Grand Junction since 2011.
Colorado Mesa’s leading scorer Bryanna Adams showed why she’s one of the top performers in the RMAC. The conference’s second leading scorer led all players with 25 points. Adams wasn’t the only one to have a banner night for Colorado Mesa (9-5, 6-4 RMAC). With FLC interior presence Mary Rambo out with a concussion, Mavericks center Erika Musante dominated the paint, grabbing a career high 17 rebounds as Fort Lewis lost the battle of the boards 48-35. Laurin Rivera also finished with a career-high 10 assists.
“We were really locked in at the start, especially on defense,” Fort Lewis head coach Jason Flores said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Mary Rambo is an All-Conference player, so we obviously missed her, but we had a week of practice and we needed some other players to step up.”
The Skyhawks were led by Astrea Reed and Dallas Dickerson, who each scored 14 points in the loss.
After Dickerson hit her third 3-pointer of the night to tie the game at 42 early in the fourth quarter, Adams and the Mavericks rattled off a 12-0 run to take full command of the game. The sputtering Skyhawks’ offense had no time for a late comeback after watching another big lead vanish.
Whether it was tight Skyhawks defense or terrible shooting from the Mavericks to start the night, Colorado Mesa couldn’t get anything going offensively early. Though they jumped out to a 7-1 lead, the Skyhawks didn’t take full advantage of the slow Mavericks start as they also struggled from the field. The two teams combined for a 1-for-14 start and Fort Lewis held an 11-6 lead after a rough first quarter. FLC finished the game shooting only 29 percent from the field despite shooting 40 percent from 3-point territory.
Fort Lewis built a double-digit second quarter lead as the Mavericks still couldn’t get it together offensively. When Adams and company did, however, it was bad news for the visitors.
Colorado Mesa exploded on a 11-0 run in the final minutes of the first half to erase the deficit and snatch a one-point halftime lead.
The third quarter saw the teams go back-and-forth exchanging the lead, but, in the fourth, it was simply too much Adams for Fort Lewis to handle.
“You can’t give a scorer like (Adams) that many open looks,” Flores said. “She hurt us in the second half. The problem we’ve had a lot this season is sustaining the effort and intensity for four quarters. We do a really good job for awhile and we get away from doing what got us a lead in the first place. We have to learn how to stay locked in.”
The Skyhawks will try to put a halt to the three-game losing streak at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
jfries@durangoherald.com
