Fort Lewis College ended its three-game losing skid at an unlikely venue Friday night.
The FLC women’s basketball team dominated from start to finish in a 66-49 at Regis in Denver. FLC led wire-to-wire thanks to shutdown defense.
“We’ve been in this lull, but we were due,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “We just hadn’t gotten over the hump of things. I think we had a great week of practice, and that’s tough to do coming off a couple home losses. Our players came back focused for practices this week leading into this game, so it was not a surprise that we played well.”
FLC (8-10, 4-8 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) held the Rangers (9-8, 5-7 RMAC) to 27.7 percent shooting. Regis’ leading scorer Majestie Robinson, who averaged 12.3 points per game going into Friday, was held scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting in 18 minutes.
“Our defensive game plan going in, we stuck to it,” Flores said. “It was a great game. (Robinson) didn’t have anything really good to look at. Credit our players for following that and being locked in and doing a great job.”
FLC junior guard Kayle Herrera had a big night with 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“You need your best players to step up and lead, and she is that for us,” Flores said of Herrera.
Senior forward Alyssa Yocky finished with 12 points and eight rebounds for the Skyhawks, while Aubre Fortner contributed nine points off the bench. Hanna Valencia also had eight points off the bench, while Jordan Carter had eight points and five rebounds.
The Skyhawks shot 44.2 percent from the field, went 15-of-22 at the foul line and made 5-of-15 3-pointers.
FLC raced out to a 14-5 lead after one quarter and led 29-19 at halftime. The team’s largest lead was 22 points and came three minutes into the fourth quarter.
Regis went on a small 7-0 run to get back within 15 but couldn’t get any closer.
Whitney Jacob had 15 points and nine rebounds for Regis. Alex Nelson added 13 points and five rebounds. Shelby Espinosa also was held scoreless inside, though she grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
FLC will try to keep momentum going in the right direction at 5 p.m. Saturday at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood.
“I’m super proud, but we’re capable of beating good teams like this,” Flores said. “We’ve talked about putting 40 minutes together, and we just haven’t done that. I’m proud of them. It’s mid to late January. We could have folded and threw the towel in. That’s the furthest thing from what they did.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
