Fort Lewis College head coach Jason Flores knew the Skyhawks couldn’t get beaten badly on the boards against Regis in Tuesday’s RMAC Shootout opening-round matchup. However, that’s exactly what happened.
The Rangers created second and third opportunities far too often, and the Skyhawks couldn’t recover, as Regis used a 52-30 rebounding edge to beat the Skyhawks 71-61 in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.
The loss puts an end to what was a very good season for Fort Lewis, which was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll. The Skyhawks’ 21-7 record was the best finish since the 2011-12 season, and they’ll lose only one player in senior Ande Lampert.
“This team was young, and nobody knew who most of these girls were at the start of the season,” Flores said. “Ande Lampert deserves a lot of credit for the season we had. On and off the court, she provided more of a contribution than anything that will show up in the book. She’s a classy girl and she really took care of these girls and this program. A lot of the success we had this year, and the success we’ll have down the road, will be because of the hard work and the care that Ande Lampert put in.”
FLC and Regis finished the season with the same record, but the Skyhawks ended up on the wrong end of a three-way tie and had to hit the road for the first-round matchup.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the first half. Fort Lewis led 19-14 after the first quarter and led by as much as eight points, but Regis reclaimed the lead in the second quarter.
Though Briana Clah had 17 first-half points, Regis dominated the glass 25-9 in the first 20 minutes and carried a 37-34 lead into halftime.
Fort Lewis started the second half strong and knotted the game at 41. The offense sputtered for the remainder of the third quarter, however, and Regis continued to control the boards. The Rangers (22-6) seemed to create second-chance opportunities nearly every time down the floor and finished the quarter on a 9-3 run to carry its largest lead of the game, 50-44, into the final quarter.
Regis extended its lead to double digits after scoring the first five points of the fourth quarter, and the deficiency on the glass made it tough for FLC to make up ground.
“A big part of the problem was the fact that they just kept beating us off the dribble and forcing us to rotate,” Flores said. “They were getting us out of rebounding position, and that was what created the big gap.”
The dominance on the glass led the Rangers to a 27-11 advantage in the second-chance points category, which ended up being the difference in the game.
Clah finished with a game-high 23 points. RMAC Freshman of the Year Kayla Herrera had 14 and Shelby Patterson finished with 10. Mary Sigler and Kaylie Rader led Regis with 16 points each.
jfries@durangoherald.com
