Despite a poor shooting night, the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team managed to take the Colorado Mines down to the wire Friday night at Whalen Gymnasium in front of a vocal crowd.
The Orediggers used their size down low to throw the Skyhawks off all night, but it took Emily Bailey’s free throw to put the Skyhawks away, 57-56.
After some confusion with the score from the scorer’s table, the Orediggers were up 56-53 with 1 minute left in the game. FLC’s Michelle Turner nailed a deep 3-point shot to tie the game at 56. The Orediggers inbounded the ball to Bailey, and she took the ball the length of the floor and was fouled with one second left on the clock to send her to the charity stripe where she would go 1-for-2 to deliver the game-winning point.
Prior to the late game dramatics, confusion at the scorer’s table ensued. The official scorer added an extra point late in the fourth quarter. When FLC’s Kate Bayes was at the free-throw line, the scorer’s table readjusted the score. Some people from the crowd and even some coaches on Fort Lewis’ side were questioning the score. After a referee timeout, the score was settled at 56-53.
“It’s momentum; you think the score is tied, but you’re down by one,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “We were hoping to go to overtime, but we had a bad foul at the end on the shooter, and we can’t do that defensively.”
Fort Lewis College (5-2, 1-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) shot just 25 percent from the field, and Colorado Mines (4-2, 2-0 RMAC) dominated the rebounding, 49-43.
Fort Lewis’ Kylie Santos finished the game with 14 points and five rebounds. Santos and Turner were the hot hands of the night. Santos was 4-for-12 from 3-point land and Turner was 3-for-7 for nine points.
The Orediggers focused heavily on FLC’s Mary Rambo, who finished the game with eight points and nine rebounds. Colorado Mines’ Caitlyn Smith had 12 rebounds, as she held Rambo to only four field-goal attempts. Bailey led the Orediggers with 13 points and added six rebounds.
“We didn’t attack to the rim like we normally do,” Flores said. “We were just terrible from 10 feet and in. We had a lot of opportunities to finish in the lane, but we just didn’t finish. We had multiple players who did not finish. Let’s give credit where credit is due.”
Fort Lewis was off all night on both ends of the floor, and Flores said his team should have had a better night defensively.
“We only forced 13 turnovers, which for us is a bad defensive effort,” he said. “We were on our heels and we allowed them to execute the way they wanted to execute. We weren’t aggressive, we were soft.”
Colorado Mines used its size down low to jump to an early 8-7 lead as Bailey and Laura Tyree were able to penetrate off the dribble to create open plays in the middle.
FLC clung to an 18-13 lead after the first quarter, but in the second quarter both teams struggled. The Skyhawks outscored the Orediggers 5-3 in the second frame.
FLC went in at halftime up 21-17, and, with hot shooting from Santos, the Skyhawks were able to hang on to the lead and go up 40-38 at the end of the third quarter.
Colorado Mines opened the final quarter on a 13-3 run and went up 51-43 at one point. FLC battled back to narrow the gap to 51-45.
“We should have capitalized more,” Santos said. “They aren’t as athletic as we are, and we didn’t play like we were more athletic. You have to give it to them, they played a great game. They outworked us. None of us could say that we worked harder than them.”
In the final minutes of the fourth quarter, FLC clawed back within reach at 54-49. With 2:52 left, FLC’s Dallas Dickerson found Rambo on an inbound pass under the basket. Rambo came around a screen and Dickerson found her wide open for the easy bucket. That basket put the game at 54-52 in favor of Mines.
With the score 56-53 and 29 seconds left, Turner turned to her deep shot to give FLC life.
“We only had one offensive possession there and I did my best,” Turner said. “I just wish that I could have been more consistent all game.”
The Orediggers’ physicality was what ultimately gave the Skyhawks trouble. The Orediggers outscored the Skyhawks in the paint 14-6 and on second-chance points 10-6. The game was close all night with 13 lead changes.
“Watching film they looked like a really physical team and they’re like savages,” Turner said. “I just didn’t expect it to come down to the wire like it did.”
The loss will be short-lived, as the Skyhawks turn around to play Colorado Christian (3-2, 0-1 RMAC) at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
“This is the first time that our backs were against the wall all year,” Flores said. “We’ll see how we respond. We’ll have a lot more fight, a lot more cohesiveness.”
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
