The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team is preparing for a four-game homestand after a tough couple of weeks on the road.
The Skyhawks’ win at Westminster last Saturday snapped a three-game losing streak in which Fort Lewis (9-7, 6-5 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) battled numerous injuries and played some of the RMAC’s best teams without senior interior presence Mary Rambo for the majority of the trip.
Back at the comfortable surroundings of the FLC campus and Whalen Gymnasium, this weekend should be a good opportunity for Fort Lewis to make up some ground in the RMAC with Western New Mexico (6-10, 4-7 RMAC) and New Mexico Highlands (2-14, 0-11 RMAC) coming to town.
“It definitely feels nice knowing that we don’t have to travel this week,” Fort Lewis head coach Jason Flores said Thursday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It was nice to be able to come home on a positive note after playing tough teams and battling through injuries. Hopefully we can build off that win and use the confidence to get back to what we were doing early in the season.”
Astrea Reed’s 16 points led Fort Lewis in Salt Lake City, but the Skyhawks’ bench was the key to the win at Westminster. They outscored the opponents 36-17 and collectively went on a 12-0 second-half run to blow the game wide open after being down seven points in the third quarter. Durango’s own Emily McCue had 13 points off the Skyhawks’ bench, and Dallas Dickerson continued her hot shooting with nine points. Ande Lampert and Alyssa Yocky filled in nicely for an injured Rambo and outrebounded the Griffins 40-25.
It was a much-needed win as Fort Lewis had squandered late leads at Colorado Mines and Colorado Christian the weekend before and suffered a tough loss at Colorado Mesa last Friday.
“We’re still not 100 percent, but we’ve had a great week of practice and the effort and hunger are there,” Flores said. “Hopefully we can put some wins up in these next two weeks at home because, if you look at the standings, we need to do that.”
In Friday’s matchup, Western New Mexico will come to Durango on the heels of a three-game losing streak and on the losing end of six out of its last seven games. The Mustangs are led by Desiree Smith who carries a 10.7 points-per-game average and leads an offense that scores 56 points per game. Smith is also fifth in the conference with 2.3 steals per game.
Fort Lewis will also have to keep an eye on Mustangs junior Jordan Gutierrez, who is shooting just over 40 percent from 3-point range.
New Mexico Highlands’ women aren’t having the same success as the first-place men.
The Cowgirls haven’t won yet this season against an RMAC opponent as they’re 0-for-11. It won’t get much easier for New Mexico Highlands as the matchup with Fort Lewis doesn’t favor them. Fort Lewis is second in the RMAC averaging 69 points per game and the Cowgirls will have to bump up their offensive efficiency if they hope to win their first conference game. Their 56 points scored per game average is second to last in the RMAC.
“It’s no secret that if you look past anyone in this conference you’re going to be stuck shaking your heads,” Flores said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, we have to play hard, we have to play tough and we have to finish the game. I’m surprised at the records, especially New Mexico Highlands because they have a lot of talent on that team. What I’m concerned about is us. If we don’t play hard, we can get beat by anybody.”
The Skyhawks will tipoff with Western New Mexico at 5:30 p.m. Friday and they’ll face New Mexico Highlands at the same time Saturday.
jfries@durangoherald.com
