Fort Lewis’ offense once again was too much for Lincoln University, as the Skyhawks cruised to a 76-46 victory on Tuesday afternoon at Whalen Gymnasium.
Fort Lewis has won three straight games and improved to 3-3 on the season. Lincoln fell to 1-4.
The Skyhawks didn’t score as many points as they did in their 85-40 win over Lincoln Monday night, but they did shoot better from the floor. Fort Lewis shot 42% from the field and 32% from 3-point range.
Between the two matchups, Fort Lewis beat Lincoln by a combined 75 points.
It was another well-balanced attack for the Skyhawks, as eight players scored anywhere between six and 13 points. Fort Lewis had a season-high 19 assists on 29 made baskets.
“Like yesterday, today we did a really good job of really trying to seek out the extra pass and we got a lot of open looks and we got a lot of open layups,” Skyhawks coach Taylor Harris said. “For some reason today and yesterday, we just didn't really convert and make those at a high enough percentage. We're not shooting the ball at a high enough percentage to have the success that we want to have, but we're getting the right looks.”
Senior guard Ember Cervantes, who scored zero points on Monday night, led Fort Lewis in scoring with a career-high 13 points on 5 of 12 shooting overall and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line.
“She does a great job of doing her job, which is to provide an energy spark off the bench, especially defensively and to let the offense come to her,” Harris said about Cervantes. “Today, Lincoln was really focused on Lanae, so that really allowed Ember to have more driving lanes and a lot more open looks because they were so focused on Lanae and she just let it come to her.”
Sophomore forward Kate Gallery had another strong game with 12 points on 4 of 9 shooting overall and 2 of 5 from 3-point range, along with five rebounds. Redshirt junior Lilly Pepper had another double-double off the bench with 10 points on 4 of 8 shooting from the field and 12 rebounds, seven of which were offensive boards.
Lincoln shot 27% from the field and 14% from beyond the arc. Arielle Hines led Lincoln with 16 points on 7 of 16 shooting overall and 13 rebounds.
Fort Lewis opened with a 21-7 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. It extended the lead to 38-14 at half.
Senior forward Kelsey Sorenson missed this game as well, as she continues to recover from a knee injury.
The Skyhawks will open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play at 3 p.m. Saturday at Western Colorado University.
“Saturday is going to really come down to rebounding,” Harris said. “They're really well-coached, they've got a great all-conference post player, they surround her with shooting and they're really tough. They rebound well and we're going to have to really raise our level of rebounding and physicality on Saturday. They went 0-2 against us last year, and I know that they're not happy about that and we're coming into their house and they're going to play really hard.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
