Trouble for the Fort Lewis women’s basketball team was apparent in the first quarter.
The Skyhawks struggled with offensive creation and shot 2 of 15 from the field. The shooting didn’t get much better and Metropolitan State University of Denver led the entire game en route to a 61-55 win at Fort Lewis Saturday afternoon.
The Skyhawks dropped to 11-10 overall and 8-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after shooting 30% from the field and 28% from 3-point range.
MSU Denver improved to 5-14 overall and 4-10 in the RMAC after shooting 36% from the field and 18% from 3-point range. The Roadrunners out-rebounded the Skyhawks 51-33, including a 15-6 offensive rebounding advantage.
“I want to credit Metro,” Fort Lewis coach Taylor Harris said. “They had a great win last night and followed it up with a really tough performance today. Every time we made a run they had a great answer. They were really tough, physical and aggressive inside. They did a great job rebounding. They did a great job staying composed. We just couldn’t turn them over.”
Senior forward Kelsey Sorenson led the Skyhawks with 13 points on 5 of 12 shooting from the field and 3-4 shooting from the free-throw line. Sophomore guard Lanae Billy struggled mightily against the Roadrunners. She finished with 10 points after she shot 4 of 22 from the field and 2 of 14 from 3-point range. Junior forward Samantha Wattawa had 10 points and 11 rebounds as well.
“I had no issues with her shot selection,” Harris said about Billy. “The shots that she took tonight she made last night and made at Mesa. It happens with shooters.”
Roadrunners forward Brianna Sealy led MSU Denver with 13 points on 4 of 10 shooting from from the field and 5 of 5 shooting from the free-throw line. Ashlyn Yow had 10 points.
Fort Lewis trailed 6-2 early, although it could’ve been worse in the early moments. MSU Denver got a bunch of open looks from outside but couldn’t knock them down.
There wasn’t much offensive creation for Fort Lewis, and the Skyhawks were stuck on three points for most of the quarter.
MSU Denver got inside to push its lead to 10-5 before the end of the first quarter.
The Roadrunners continued to move the ball against the Skyhawks 2-3 zone. Sealy had a layup and a foul to push the MSU Denver lead to 15-5 with 8:57 left.
Two baskets by junior guard Sadie Misner and senior guard Ember Cervantes cut MSU Denver’s lead to 19-13 with 5:20 left.
Sophomore forward Kate Gallery hits two 3-pointers from the exact same spot, but Yow hit a rare Roadrunner 3-pointer to push the lead to 26-21 with 2:32 left. MSU Denver led 29-23 at half.
Yow hit another 3-pointer to keep some distance between the Roadrunners and Skyhawks to start the second half.
MSU Denver was effective on the offensive boards and that led to additional scoring opportunities.
Billy and the Skyhawks offense continued to struggle in the middle of the third quarter and Fort Lewis found itself down double-digits. Fort Lewis wasn’t forcing turnovers and continued to get killed on the offensive boards.
Misner had a great steal off an inbounds play and Wattawa was able to get to the free-throw line, making two free throws to cut the Roadrunners lead to 45-37 entering the fourth quarter.
The Skyhawks cut the deficit down to seven with a Misner 3-pointer with 8:48 left, but she got stripped the next time down and committed a hard foul to stop the fast break.
It wasn’t Billy’s night and her struggles from the field affected the rest of the team’s offensive creation as they tried to comeback in the middle of the fourth quarter.
MSU Denver continued to move the ball well and get looks inside against the Skyhawks 2-3 zone. The Roadrunners led by 10 with four minutes left.
Fort Lewis continued to look sloppy down the stretch with some turnovers and MSU Denver kept a double-digit lead until about 30 seconds left when the game was already in hand.
The Skyhawks are on the road next Friday at CSU Pueblo, starting at 5:30 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
