Northern New Mexico was no match for the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team Thursday night at Whalen Gymnasium.
The Skyhawks jumped out to a quick 23-12 lead after the first quarter and never stumbled on the way to a 105-51 victory. “The two goals that were great that we talked about were we held them to under 52 (points), which was a really good defensive effort, and we had 30 assists,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “When you can do both of those things, it means they were pretty sharp and played a great game.”
The Skyhawks (3-0) built their lead to 20 at halftime behind great shooting from the field and taking advantage of Eagles’ turnovers. In the half, Northern New Mexico (2-5) turned over the ball 13 times, which led to 20 points for the Skyhawks.
FLC shot 52 percent from the field in the half and caught fire from beyond the arc with four 3-pointers on 4-of-6 shooting from deep. The Skyhawks also assisted on 18 of their 19 made field goals in the first half.
FLC got a boost from its bigs in the win. Jordan Carter set a new career high in points with 13 on the night, 10 of which came in the first half. Her previous high was 4 last season, also against Northern New Mexico. And senior center Natalie Stilwell was 4-for-4 from the field for 8 points.
“It really makes us well balanced. How could you not like it,” Flores said of Carter and Stilwell’s performances. “As a coach, that’s what you strive for with inside-outside scoring. We have more perimeter scoring, but we talk all the time about playing inside-out. Whether it’s getting the ball into the post on a pass or getting in there with our guards and kicking it out, that’s when we become effective.”
Carter and Stilwell weren’t the only Skyhawks to go off on the Eagles. Five players cracked double-digit scoring and 12 of the 13 Skyhawks to see the floor scored.
Freshman Vivian Gray led FLC in scoring for the third game in a row with 16 points. Briana Clah and Astrea Reed added 14 apiece and Kayla Herrera matched Carter with 13 points.
On the night, FLC shot 60 percent from the field and hit 8-of-10 from deep. FLC also made 19-of-21 free-throw attempts and assisted on 30 of its 39 made field goals.
The defensive side of the floor was just as impressive for the Skyhawks, who held Northern New Mexico to just better than 31 percent shooting, but gave up 10 offensive rebounds.
“Defensively I think we’re coming together better, but I feel like we were too excited to get out and run in transition,” said Herrera, who was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s defensive player of the week for last week.
“Once the ball was up everyone was kind of taking off. I felt myself taking off a little more than I should have been. But then again that just aggression and competitiveness. We just need to get in there and box out. It’s just the little fundamentals that coach always tells us to key in on.”
The Skyhawks will hit the road for the first time next week for the Angelo State Tournament Nov. 24-25 in San Angelo, Texas.
FLC will face Angelo State (0-0) at 2:30 p.m. Friday, then will take on Texas A&M University-Kingsville (1-2) at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
