Disappointing road losses are becoming habit for the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team.
FLC (13-9, 10-8 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) fell 61-57 to the UC-Colorado Springs Mountain Lions (9-13, 8-10 RMAC) on Saturday night at the Gallogly Event Center in Colorado Springs.
The loss was the second of the week for the Skyhawks, who fell 53-49 at CSU-Pueblo on Friday.
“It is real frustrating. We just didn’t get good performances this weekend from some of our key players, and that is a big problem,” FLC women’s basketball head coach Jason Flores said. “We need better play from our seniors.”
FLC dropped to 3-7 on the road this season with the loss.
“In this league, you have to have a lot of toughness on the road to win games. We just haven’t,” Flores said.
FLC had a tough night shooting the ball. The Skyhawks were just 3-of-17 from behind the 3-point line and 21-of-59 from the field.
“(Friday) night, the three seniors combined to shoot 9-of-41 and had 10 or 11 of our 15 turnovers. It was similar (Saturday),” Flores said. “They are better than that. We need better play. When they play well, we are good; when they don’t, not so much.”
Erika Richards led FLC with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting.
Abby Kirchoff led UCCS with a game-high 18 points.
The Skyhawks turned the ball over 16 times Saturday, leading to 22 UCCS points.
FLC trailed by as many as 15 points with just more than 10 minutes left in the game after failing to score for more than four minutes, but the Skyhawks went on a 12-4 run late to get back in the game.
Trailing 57-54 with less than a minute to play, Richards had a 3-point attempt rim out. FLC had another shot after Ashley Kuchar hit a 3-pointer to make it 59-57 UCCS, but Kirchoff made 1-of-2 free throw attempts to extend the lead back to three points. Another 3-point try from Kuchar rimmed out, and FLC never had another chance to even the game.
“We played hard both nights. We didn’t shoot well, and that hurt. If you would’ve told me we would hold (UCCS) to 61 points, I would’ve thought we should win,” Flores said.
The Skyhawks dropped to fifth in the RMAC standings with the loss, being jumped by Regis (13-9, 11-7 RMAC) and Black Hills State (12-11, 11-8). Metro State also is 10-8 in the RMAC along with FLC.
The Skyhawks will hit the road again next weekend to face Metro State and then Regis. FLC beat Regis 79-61 and Metro State 78-57 in a pair of home games last month.
“They are two good programs, but I think we can win both. We have got to play well and with a level of toughness,” Flores said. “Toughness and playing hard are two different things. We played hard both nights this week, but we have to play tougher.”
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
