The Fort Lewis College women's basketball team saw its season come to an end in front of a packed Whalen Gymnasium on Saturday night. The Skyhawks fell to No. 16/17 Colorado School of Mines 78-75.
The game saw eight ties and eight lead changes throughout, and only two points separated the teams heading into the fourth quarter. A 6-0 run by Mines, however, gave the Orediggers just enough separation to finish on top.
Freshman Lanae Billy led FLC with 14 points, her 22nd double-digit outing to close her first season with a 16-point-per-game average. Sophomore Avery Evans followed with 13 points for her fourth-straight game in double figures. Graduate student Kaitlyn Bell and junior Kelsey Sorenson each scored 11 points, and senior Alyssa Adams closed out her career with a 10-point night.
Megan Van de Graaf led Mines with a career-high 31 points to go along with nine rebounds. Ashley Steffeck followed with 25 points and 13 rebounds.
Steffeck opened the first quarter with a trio of threes as the Orediggers jumped ahead 11-2. Bell responded with a rare three. Freshman Kate Gallery later kicked off a mini run with a corner three, followed by a Sorenson drive to make it 17-14 with 2:35 remaining in the quarter.
Steffeck nailed a jumper on the following possession, but Gallery was gold again from three. Evans ended the quarter with a three-point play and FLC had a 22-19 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The Orediggers dropped in seven straight to open the second before Evans dropped in a bucket. After Mines went up by seven, Sorenson and Bell scored on layups to cut the lead to 33-30. The Orediggers started to pull away again, but a push in the final minute, capped off by a buzzer-beater Billy three, cut Mines’ lead to 42-40 at the half.
Sorenson erased the deficit out of the break with a jumper. Adams followed with a clutch three to give FLC a 47-44 advantage. The lead stayed in the grasp of the Skyhawks, but a Van de Graaf three-point knotted it at 54-54 late in the third.
Freshman Audra Vine capitalized from the free-throw line to put Fort Lewis ahead 57-56. Mines took a brief lead with 12 seconds to go, but senior Brooke McGee nailed a buzzer three to give FLC a 60-58 lead heading into the fourth.
The Orediggers reclaimed the lead with a 6-0 scoring run before Evans got the Skyhawks on the board. Mines then went on a short run to grab its largest lead of the game at 70-62, but FLC hit six straight free throws followed by a Bell jumper to make it a one-possession game with 1:40 remaining. Mines pulled ahead again, but Billy connected on a contested three to push the score to 76-73 with 25 seconds remaining. Mines responded with a pair of free throws to go up by four. Adams made two more free throws for FLC after a fast break with five seconds left, but time expired before FLC could catch the Orediggers.
Fort Lewis finishes its season 9-19 overall and 6-16 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action. The loss marked the career end for seniors Alyssa Adams, Kaitlyn Bell, Brooke McGee, Tayla Nez, and student assistant coach Beck Hix.
Mines improved to 22-5, 18-4 and scored the No. 2 seed for the RMAC Tournament behind regular-season champ Regis (22-6, 19-3). Black Hills State (22-6, 17-5) got the No. 3 seed, followed by Adams State (20-8 16-6), Westminster (17-11, 1-7), MSU Denver (15-13, 13-9), Colorado Mesa (13-15, 12-10) and CSU Pueblo in eighth (14-14, 11-11).
