Turnovers nearly doomed the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team in its season opener.
They sunk the Skyhawks in their second game Saturday night against St. Edward’s in Austin, Texas.
FLC (1-1) turned the ball over 27 times in a 58-54 loss.
“That was it. No doubt about it, when we actually don’t turn the ball over and got good looks, we were scoring,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “That’s a glaring stat that we had to turn around. Players have to do a better job of taking care of the ball, bad decisions, forced and rushed decisions. That’s our job as coaches to put them in better positions not to do that.”
St. Edward’s (1-0) jumped out to a 30-18 lead at halftime that proved large enough.
The Skyhawks outscored the Hilltoppers 36-28 in the second half.
“We dug ourselves too big of a hole,” Flores said. “Had that game gone even two more minutes, we probably would have won it.”
Mileka Loydrake led St. Edward’s with 22 points, while Lexi Fatheree had 20 for the Hilltoppers.
“Their two best players were really good (Saturday night),” Flores said. “We didn’t match that early in the game.”
St. Edward’s led by 22 with 12 minutes, 6 seconds remaining in the game.
Michelle Turner cut the FLC deficit to one possession with 42 seconds left on a fast-break layup.
The Skyhawks never got closer than 57-54, as the Hilltoppers made a free throw with 17 seconds left to ice the game.
“The key for us is to learn from this,” Flores said. “If we can bottle up what got us to almost winning this game, we’re going to be OK.”
Mary Brinton continued her strong start to the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds in just 18 minutes to lead the Skyhawks. Her playing time was limited, because she is returning from an injury. She scored 10 points in a victory over the University of Dallas on Friday night.
“I wish I could have played her 30 (minutes), but we still have the season to look to,” Flores said of the Pagosa Springs High School alumna. “Coming back off a foot surgery a month ago, we have to be smart about upping her minutes.”
FLC will play its first home game of the season at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the first game of a women’s/men’s doubleheader. The FLC women will play Northern New Mexico, then the FLC men will play Eastern New Mexico at 7:30 p.m. at Whalen Gymnasium.
“We figured some things out; that’s why this game fit,” Flores said. “If there’s any positive we can take out of it is you learn about your team in a tough environment on the road. If we can take the positives that we did have and learn to become that team, we’re going to be pretty good.”
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