One of the best defensive teams in the conference a year ago has added some offense for the 2015-16 season.
The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team has been on the court before sunup the past three weeks getting ready for the regular season home opener at 5:30 p.m. Friday against Westminster College on the opening night of the Skyhawks Regional Classic at Whalen Gymnasium in Durango.
Fort Lewis lost only two players from last year’s team that went 16-11 overall and 13-9 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and a few exciting new pieces mixed with experienced players should make the Skyhawks even more dangerous this season.
It was immediately evident last week when the Skyhawks traveled to play Brigham Young University and Utah on consecutive nights in big exhibition tests. FLC hung in both of those games until the final whistle, staying within 10 points in both games.
“I’m optimistic,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “We had a tough time at BYU last year. This year, I feel like we’re a strong team. How that translates I’m not sure yet, but we’re more well rounded.”
A year ago, FLC won with defense. It held opponents to an RMAC-low 34.1 percent shooting from the field. That helped offset an offense that struggled to shoot at 38 percent from the field and 25.4 percent from 3-point range. The Skyhawks also were the best rebounding team in the RMAC and ranked No. 1 in blocked shots per game.
Flores hopes to see his team in the top three of the top defensive categories in the conference once more this season.
“Offensively, it was a struggle last year,” he said.
But the Skyhawks have added some offense, particularly at the guard position where jump shooting was a weak point a year ago. Flores said the team’s returning guards put in a lot of work in the offseason, and the addition of some key freshman and Division I transfer Astrea Reed from Grand Canyon University has the team confident.
“A point guard that can shoot,” FLC senior guard Kylie Santos said when asked what Reed brings to the team. “That’s something we haven’t had in awhile. It’s new and opening a lot of doors for us.”
In the post, FLC will be led by senior Mary Rambo, formerly Mary Brinton, of Pagosa Springs. Rambo once again was selected to the RMAC All-Preseason Team and has been a constant name on RMAC award lists during her career.
Rambo was ninth in the RMAC in scoring a year ago at 14 points per game. She also ranked 10th in rebounds with an average of 6.5 per game, and she had the second best shooting percentage in the league at 53.2 percent.
Rambo and Santos have been leaders on the team for two seasons, and they’ve taken pride in assisting Flores so he doesn’t have to micromanage players.
“It kind of started last year,” Rambo said of her and Santos’ leadership. “Coach has given us good opportunities to step up and take ownership, and it is motivating. We’ve come together as a team well, and everyone has played really well. When subs come in there is no step down.”
FLC expects to benefit with senior guard Simone Ruedin and sophomore guard Dallas Dickerson entering their second season in the program. Dickerson, a 5-foot-8 guard from Alaska, came on strong in the second half of last season to provide much needed offense.
Senior transfer guard Kate Bayes also is in her second season with FLC after transferring from Nebraska-Omaha, and she was a big piece all season for the Skyhawks a year ago, averaging 1.9 steals per game, which was good for sixth in the RMAC.
FLC landed another transfer from Nebraska-Omaha this year in Victoria Trowbridge, a 6-foot-1 forward who will help Rambo in the post. They also will be joined by 6-4 junior forward Ande Lampert, who has continued to grow with the team.
FLC also boasts talented true freshman in Payton Shahan of Pagosa Springs and Sydni Brandon of Grand Junction.
“Our transfers and freshman are getting good minutes,” Flores said. “The experience on the rest of the team has pulled them along quickly. A lot of players are vying for playing time, which makes it hard as a coach to find quality minutes for 13 players.”
Friday’s opponent, Westminster College, is a new team to the RMAC this season. Along with the addition of South Dakota Mines, it is now a 16-team conference with two divisions. The divisions won’t decide RMAC Shootout seeding but will come into play in the regular season with teams only playing the other division one time per season. Each team will have 11 home and road conference games.
There are also a bunch of new rules this season, including a switch from two 20-minute halves to four 10-minute quarters. That also has brought change to the timeout system and added an ability for teams to automatically advance the ball past midcourt after any immediate timeout following a change of possession in the final minute of the fourth quarter.
Flores said it has added some new aspects to plan for, but the coaches and players all like the new format and believe it will help the pace of play.
“The quarters are something different, but it also gives you more breaks and helps actually make the game faster which is good,” Santos said.
Westminster College went 26-3 in NAIA last year, so Flores expects a very tough contest despite The Griffins being selected to finish 12th in the RMAC by member coaches in the preseason poll. FLC was selected fifth in that poll that was led by Colorado Mesa, UC-Colorado Springs, Colorado Christian and Metro State.
“This is a chance right here to make a statement to the whole RMAC,” Santos said. “We’re a force to be reckoned with, and we aren’t going to go away.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
