Depth and the killer instinct of Sydney Candelaria were critical in a huge upset win for the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team.
Down 44-34 at halftime and 61-53 after three quarters, the Skyhawks outscored the No. 21 Westminster College Griffins (17-4, 12-3 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) 21-11 the final 15 minutes of the game to claim a 74-72 overtime win at home Saturday night inside Whalen Gymnasium in Durango.
After the game, the Skyhawks roared in celebration in their home locker room, and players doused first-year head coach Orlando Griego with water.
“It feels amazing,” FLC head coach Orlando Griego said. “Credit to these girls; credit to our seniors for leading and everyone else jumping on board. It’s a huge team win. A lot of people came into the game and played a lot of good minutes. I’m so proud of our team. This is a great feeling.”
FLC (15-5, 11-4 RMAC) rallied from behind to tie the game at 63-63 with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. A Kayla Herrera-Flores basket at the shot-clock buzzer kept FLC tied with the Griffins at 65-65. Mariah Martin would give Westminster a 67-65 lead, but a big give-and-go bucket with Herrera-Flores assisting Jordan Carter tied the game again for FLC with 33.3 seconds to play. The teams would end regulation tied, as a last-second 3-point try by Chloe Warrington of FLC was no good off the glass to send the game to overtime.
The Skyhawks were able to force overtime thanks to a 10-1 advantage in turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“Our turnovers killed us,” Westminster head coach Shelley Jarrard said. “We had opportunities at really crucial parts of the game, and then we’d have back to back turnovers. We had some charge calls that just really, really hurt us, and back to back, just really interesting.
“Fort Lewis is tough. They play hard and rebound and take care of the basketball. They got good looks and really kicked our tails. It’s just a tough loss on the road.”
In overtime, FLC overcame an early 70-67 deficit after Kaitlin Toluono made a 3 for Westminster. FLC would take a 72-70 lead with a big Jordan Vasquez bucket late in the shot-clock followed by a brilliant drive and finish for Katrina Chandler on a layup that also came late in the shot clock.
Martin, a fantastic foul shooter, made only 1-of-2 at the foul line with 14.5 seconds to go, and the game was tied at 72-72 with 14.5 seconds to go.
FLC took a timeout to draw up a play. Just as FLC did against Metro State, Candelaria was the woman the Skyhawks drew up the play for. She drove hard to her left and finished a strong layup with 1.7 seconds to go to give FLC a 74-72 lead. It was the second-game winning shot of the season for Candelaria.
“It’s a great that I have teammates and coaches that trust me to have the ball in my hands those last seconds,” Candelaria said. “Even though it came down to that last second, it’s the whole game. Everybody is working hard the entire game, and it’s all five people. Even though that last shot went in, it’s everyone contributing the whole game.”
Griego said there was no question what he would do with enough time on the clock for Candelaria to work off the dribble.
“When we have enough time to run an on-ball screen and get her downhill, I don’t think that there are very many people that can keep up with her speed, especially if there is a good screen and she is able to get her shoulders facing to that basket,” he said. “I have, and (assistant coach Cydney McHenry) has all the confidence in the world for her to be able to take that shot. Make or miss it, doesn’t matter, we’re gonna give her the ball and let her do her thing.”
The Griffins had one final shot, but a quick inbound pass to Sarah McGinley resulted in a long shot that was never close, and the buzzer sounded to give FLC a massive win. Coach Jarrard said it was not the play Westminster wanted to run, as she wanted the team to get the ball inside.
The Skyhawks are now 13-1 at home this season with two home games still to play. After a tough 1-3 road trip, FLC went 4-0 on a critical homestand.
Candelaria finished with 12 points, seven assists and four rebounds. She also had three steals and only two turnovers. FLC was led by freshman forward Jordan Vasquez, who had a team-high 21 points to go with six rebounds. Vasquez continued to show increased range with some outside shooting. She made 8-of-15 shots.
“I’m just trying to be really confident and be ready to shoot it and step in and be able to do that,” Vasquez said. “When they come out on me, be able to go inside. Develop my game.”
Carter finished with 12 points and three rebounds. She also was critical late in the game with defense on Westminster’s Hunter Krebs. Krebs had a game-high 25 points on 10-fo-14 shooting to go with seven rebounds. She had only three points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“Just don’t let her catch it,” Carter said of her defense on Krebs. “She’s a great post player. She’s a really good 3-point shooter. She gets the ball, she’s gonna produce. It’s nice knowing I have my teammates sneaking in for double teams.”
Martin added 17 points for Westminster, but she had nine turnovers to go with eight assists.
Toluono had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Griffins. Westminster, which usually only plays six or seven women, looked to run out of gas a bit against the 10-woman rotation of FLC.
The Skyhawks overcome 10-of-21 free-throw shooting to win, while Westminster made 8-of-12 from the foul line. FLC took 20 more shots from the field than Westminster. The Skyhawks turned the ball over only six times to the 21 from Westminster.
“It was a huge part of our strategy was to really run them,” Griego said. “Really get them into a marathon. I kept telling the team, even though we were down 10, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Coach (McHenry) did a good job of really telling me that to really enforce that to our team. That was the biggest thing, continue chipping at the lead and continue to be aggressive.”
Now, FLC will go back on the road for four consecutive games with a trip next Friday and Saturday to Colorado Christian and Regis before a Utah swing to rematch with Westminster and Dixie State.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time,” Griego said. “Obviously, we would love to host a game for the playoffs, but it’s gonna be one game at a time. We have a lot of confidence moving forward. We’re gonna hit the road. We’re soon to be playing our best basketball, and this is the right time to be playing your best basketball.”
Colorado Mesa (18-3, 14-1 RMAC) has a strong hold on first place of the conference. Westminster is now two games back in second, and FLC is in a three-team tie for third place at 11-4 in conference play with Colorado School of Mines and Western Colorado. FLC has a tiebreaker against Mines and will get a chance to split the season series with Western when the Mountaineers visit Durango on Feb. 22 a night after Colorado Mesa will visit FLC in the final home games of the regular season.
“It’s a beast,” Jarrard said of the top-four teams in the RMAC. “We have to go on the road again to see Western and Mesa. It’s a tough conference, and they’re all on our side and we have to play them twice. You get a win here, that’s a big win. It felt like we had it several times, but we let it get away.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
