The Skyhawks women’s basketball team looked like they were heading for their first loss of the season, but sophomore guard Katie Lamb’s shooting prowess kept Fort Lewis College’s record unblemished.
Down 61-59 with 15 seconds left and the ball, FLC head coach Lauren Zuniga drew up a play that was intended to go inside to freshman forward Alemanualii Fonoti. The pass into Fonoti was tipped; freshman guard Antia González Docampo grabbed the ball and kicked it out to Lamb, who knocked down the 3-pointer to put FLC up 62-61 with eight seconds left. Angelo State didn’t get a shot off, and FLC left Texas with a big win.
“For us, it was a matter of just keep believing, keep trying to execute what our game plan was and continue to play team defense,” Zuniga said. “We just started making shots down the stretch. In the first 38 minutes of the game, we were not making shots.”
FLC improved to 4-0 overall after outscoring Angelo State, 26-17, in the final quarter. The 4-0 record is the team’s best start since 2017-2018, and the Skyhawks’ four wins are only one less than they had all of last season (against Division II opponents).
The Skyhawks shot 34% from the field, 21% from 3-point range and 48% from the free-throw line. It was a sloppy game for both teams as FLC turned it over 24 times and Angelo State 32 times.
Junior Makaya Porter led the Skyhawks with 15 points off the bench in only 19 minutes on 7-11 shooting from the field and 1-3 from 3-point range. It’s the second time in four games Porter has led FLC in scoring.
“What's great about Makaya is she's not afraid to be aggressive,” Zuniga said. “She's always looking to attack. She finds a way to just score, even just silently. So she gets a lot of stuff at the rim; she turns her defense into offense quite a bit … she uses her size too on smaller guards sometimes.”
Lamb added 14 points on 5-12 shooting from the field, 3-9 from 3-point range and 1-1 from the free-throw line.
Angelo State dropped to 1-3 overall after it shot 37% from the field, 18% from 3-point range and 61% from the free-throw line in the loss. Addy Burns led Angelo State with 14 points and eight turnovers.
The Rams got off to a great start and led 15-3 in the middle of the first quarter. The Skyhawks slightly recovered, but still trailed 20-13 after the first quarter. Zuniga thought her team looked a little fatigued against the Angelo State defense early in the game. She said her team was settling for outside jumpers, quick shots and weren’t making their open shots.
FLC trailed the entire second quarter and trailed 29-22 at the half. The Skyhawks were also behind the entire third quarter and were losing 44-36 after three quarters. It wasn’t until a Fonoti layup with 4:49 left in the game that FLC had its first lead.
The Skyhawks continue their road trip with a game at Sul Ross State on Friday at noon.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
