It’s a familiar foe for the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team to open up the 2019-20 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference campaign.
The Skyhawks (4-1) will welcome New Mexico Highlands (1-4) at 5:30 p.m. Friday. FLC already owns a 77-48 home win against the Cowgirls in a non-conference game played Nov. 15 inside Whalen Gymnasium in Durango. The Skyhawks will look for a similar result Friday night to maintain some momentum going into a 5:30 p.m. Saturday showdown with Colorado State University-Pueblo (1-4).
FLC hasn’t played since a 87-35 drumming of University of the Southwest back on Nov. 26. Since a 69-62 loss Nov. 9 to Eastern New Mexico, the Skyhawks have won three consecutive games by a total of 115 points.
“We are doing well and have had really good practices of late,” said FLC head coach Orlando Griego. “The girls have a lot of energy and have been getting after it. They are champing at the bit to play.”
This will be the fourth game inside Whalen Gymnasium already this season for the Cowgirls, which played FLC as well as Eastern New Mexico and Western New Mexico in Durango.
“It’s tough when you’re that familiar,” Griego said. “They go back and watch lots of film on us and make corrections, and we do the same thing. It is nice that we have played them just recently, but it’s also hard that it’s been so early on because we are both familiar with what each other are doing and haven’t had time to change much. There are challenges to it.”
FLC, which was shorthanded the opening weekend of the season but have nearly fully recovered going into conference play, has the top scoring offense in the conference at 76.2 points per game, aided by the best assist mark in the conference at 18.8 per game. Highlands is 10th at 60.2 points per game, and the ThunderWolves will enter having scored 57.8 points per game.
“We tell our girls to shoot it, and they continue to have confidence,” Griego said. “As long as we can really establish solid shooting, it’s going to open up our inside presence.”
The Skyhawks also boast the second-best scoring defense thus far at 54 points per game. FLC also has benefited from an RMAC-best 17.6 offensive rebounds per game and the second-best defensive rebounding mark in the conference at 31.6.
Highlands will bring in the elite scoring ability of Jordyn Lewis, who is second in the conference at 19.8 points per game. She scored 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-10 from 3-point range, in the loss earlier this season at FLC.
FLC has been led in scoring by freshman forward Jordan Vasquez, who has 11.8 points per game. She is the lone Skyhawk averaging double figures. She is also second on the team and ninth in the conference with seven rebounds per game. Senior Kayla Herrera-Flores leads FLC with eight rebounds per game.
Though CSU-Pueblo will enter the weekend with a 1-4 record, Griego knows the ThunderWolves are a dangerous team. Their losses have come to West Texas A&M, Eastern New Mexico, Texas A&M Commerce and Lubbock Christian. They are led by the 15 points per game from JaNaiya Davis and 12.3 more from Sydni Williams, who also has grabbed 7.5 rebounds per game.
“Their record doesn’t show how good they are and what type of athletes are on their team,” Griego said. “They’ve played some really good teams and are going to be ready to battle. In conference, each game really matters, and I believe our girls are really working hard. We’re ready for conference to start.”
Griego will hope for a big crowd in his first conference game as head coach of the Skyhawks. The first 100 students to each game this weekend will receive a free Texas Taco from Serious Texas BBQ. Though it’s Noel Night Friday in downtown Durango, Griego hopes his hometown fans show up en mass.
“It’s great entertainment,” Griego said of his team. “We’ve been able to showcase that we like to get up and down, get shots up and score the ball. Any time you have the opportunity to watch a good product and watch our girls who go out and practice extremely hard to perform in these games, you’ll see that they just want to compete and win. I encourage everyone to come out and support our team.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
RMAC
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Women’s Basketball
Note: WBCA ranking in parentheses
TEAM OVERALL RMAC
Westminster (18) 6-1 1-0
Black Hills State 4-2 1-0
Fort Lewis 4-1 0-0
Colorado Mesa 4-2 0-0
Colorado Mines 3-2 0-0
Western Colorado 2-2 0-0
Regis 2-4 0-0
Chadron State 2-7 0-0
CSU-Pueblo 1-4 0-0
New Mexico Highlands 1-4 0-0
Metro State-Denver 1-5 0-0
UCCS 1-5 0-0
Adams State 0-4 0-0
Colorado Christian 0-6 0-0
Dixie State 5-2 0-1
S.D. Mines 1-3 0-1
