A physically dominant and taller Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team had no problem running through its opponent in Thursday’s home opener.
The FLC Skyhawks (2-1) shot 43.9 percent from the field in the first half and 47 percent for the game en route to an 81-47 victory against the Northern New Mexico Eagles (4-2) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
FLC head coach Jason Flores was happy to see his team accumulate 25 assists, even though they turned it over 21 times.
“I think we were in a much better rhythm offensively than we’ve been,” Flores said. “We moved the ball, we shared the ball. The 21 turnovers is still a concern for our team, and we got lazy and sloppy at certain points, but I’ll take the 25 assists, and we’ll work from there.”
FLC’s forwards dominated the game. Mary Brinton, a junior from Pagosa Springs, and Ande Lampert, a sophomore from Boulder, each had eight points in the first half, as the Skyhawks carried a 49-21 lead into the locker room.
Brinton finished with a game-high 14 points and seven rebounds. Lampert added 12 points and four rebounds, and senior forward Kaile Magazzeni scored 10 points and collected five rebounds.
“Getting more comfortable – (I) think obviously I still have more stuff to work on,” said Brinton, who wasn’t able to practice until two weeks ago because of injury. “I think it’s a good start for only practicing for two weeks now.”
The game never was close, as the Skyhawks opened on a 9-1 run and led 15-4 just 5 minutes into the game. The Skyhawks went on another big 9-0 scoring run to begin the second half, building a 58-21 lead.
FLC outrebounded the Eagles 28-16 in the first half and 50-31 for the game. It was just one of the ways the forwards dominated the game, as FLC also outscored the Eagles in the paint 34-12.
“I thought we moved the ball really well, which opened up the middle. We got baseline touches, and it’s always good to get that,” Lampert said.
The 3-point shooting of the Skyhawks helped the team gain separation in the first half. FLC hit 5-of-14 in the first half and 6-of-17 in the game. The Eagles were just 1-of-8 from 3 in the first half and 6-of-22 overall.
“We wanted to hold the ball a little bit and execute and move it,” Flores said of the team only taking three 3s in the second half. “I was glad to see that we finally hit some 3s, because early on this season we haven’t been.”
Freshman guard Ashley John from Shiprock led the Eagles with 11 points. Northern New Mexico shot just 27.3 percent in the game.
Fourteen players scored for FLC in the game. The only player not to score was starting guard Erin Curry, who had a team-high five assists and three steals. No player played more than 21 minutes.
“People work hard all the time, and as a coach you want to reward everybody for putting in the same amount of work, and you don’t normally get to do that,” Flores said.
FLC will hit the road for the third time in four games to begin the season next Tuesday. The Skyhawks will play Eastern New Mexico in Portales, N.M.
“It will be a really good game. They dropped two games this past weekend ... up in Denver against (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) teams, two good teams, and they had pretty good leads in both,” Flores said of the Greyhounds. “It will be a good challenge. Their first home game, and we’ll have to go in there with some toughness and battle through that.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
