On a chilly, snowy night in Durango, one brief cold spell was all it took to bury Fort Lewis College.
CSU-Pueblo had a 13-0 run over a span of 3 minutes, 5 seconds, and the ThunderWolves held off a late rally by the FLC women’s basketball team to win 78-73 on Saturday at Whalen Gymnasium.
In the span of that run, the ThunderWolves (5-2, 2-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) turned a 49-48 deficit into a 61-49 lead.
“More than that was just us defensively. That’s my frustration. ... Our toughness level. They didn’t hit a lot of 3s. We were OK on the perimeter. But inside, they got, out of 78 points, I’m figuring at a minimum, 35 were just layups,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said.
CSU-Pueblo was able to get passes or penetration into the paint much more easily than the Skyhawks (4-2, 1-1 RMAC) would like. The ThunderWolves outscored FLC 38-28 in the paint, allowing Paige Ramm to lead all scorers with 24 points and Katie Nehf to score 17 with nine rebounds. Guard Jenay Locke had 16 points and six rebounds, as well.
“We were just not tough, I guess. We just let them dictate whatever they wanted to do. We didn’t force them to do anything that we wanted them to do,” FLC guard Erika Richards said.
“And defensively, there was no communication at all,” FLC forward Kaile Magazzeni said.
The Skyhawks valiantly tried to mount a comeback late, closing a 14-point lead down to 73-69 with 1 minute, 38 seconds to go on a 3-pointer by Kylie Santos. But the ThunderWolves hit enough free throws down the stretch to hold off FLC.
CSU-Pueblo did well getting out in transition to score 15 fast-break points to the Skyhawks’ 6.
FLC also fell victim to a free-throw disparity, hitting 8-of-8 from the foul line against 21-of-26 for the more post-oriented ThunderWolves. Frustration over what likely was a perceived lack of calls boiled over into a Christie Groh technical foul with 8:41 to play.
Groh, who scored 20 in Friday’s victory, finished with eight points.
“I would like to comment on that, which I can’t,” Flores said. “The one thing I can say is, you know, you’re going to have games like that where you’re frustrated. And I know we lost our cool a little bit.”
Magazzeni had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Richards hit four 3s to help lead FLC with 22 points as the Skyhawks shot 42 percent from the field. Ashley Kuchar scored 15 for the Skyhawks, and Mary Brinton had 10.
FLC hit 7-of-14 from 3-point range to stay within 43-39 of CSU-Pueblo at halftime after the ThunderWolves hit 50 percent from the field in the frame. But the 3-ball abandoned FLC when it needed it late, as the Skyhawks hit just 2-of-11 from beyond the arc after intermission.
“They seemed to always have help. Whenever we would drive, they would be there,” Richards said.
rowens@ durangoherald.com
