After a poor first season coaching the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team, head coach Lauren Zuniga needed reinforcements, and she found one in Makaya Porter, who has been a big reason for the Skyhawks’ revival.
It was a tough watch for Skyhawks women’s basketball in Zuniga’s first season in 2024-2025. FLC finished 5-22 overall against Division II competition, last in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at 3-17 and lost its last eight games of the season, with six of those defeats coming by 10+ points.
Zuniga was hired a little later in the offseason, and it showed as it didn’t seem like she had the players she needed to compete in the RMAC. That’s changed this season. In addition to returning six key contributors from last season, Zuniga brought in a mix of freshmen and transfers who were ready to help turn the program around, and Porter has been one of the most important newcomers.
Last season, FLC lacked size on the wings, which limited its offense’s finishing and offensive rebounding. On defense, the Skyhawks lacked size and length to disrupt a lot of shots all over the court. That all changed with Porter this season.
The 6-foot junior transfer from Wabasha Valley College, a junior college in Mount Carmel, Illinois, has given the Skyhawks, length, finishing ability and versatility they didn’t have last year. She can finish inside with her length. Porter can be a matchup problem as she can bully smaller guards in the paint, and she has the quickness to get around bigs on the perimeter. Porter has also occasionally shown a 3-pointer shot throughout the season.
On defense, Porter is a standout shot blocker; she loves the feeling of getting a big block. Porter uses her length to get into passing lanes. She plays with an edge and has earned a few technical fouls with her competitiveness.
“She's super tenacious,” Zuniga said. “So I just loved that, and you could see it on film. She's really long; she disrupts people defensively. She's not afraid of anybody or anything.”
All of these attributes have contributed to, before FLC’s game against CSU Pueblo on Thursday, Porter being second on FLC with 11.5 points per game on 41% shooting from the field. She’s second on the team and sixth in the RMAC with 2.1 steals per game. Porter leads the team and is second in the RMAC with 1.2 blocks per game.
Porter has been a big part of FLC’s revival as the Skyhawks, before Thursday’s game, are 16-10 overall, 9-9 in the RMAC and are fighting for the program’s first conference tournament appearance in eight years.
“It’s gone pretty well,” Porter said. “Especially during the beginning of the season, I wish I would have been doing more as I am now. It took me a second.”
Growing up in Elkhart, Indiana, Porter grew up only 10 minutes away from Michigan. She started taking basketball seriously in seventh grade when she had her first 20-point game. Porter’s parents, who were both basketball players, got her on an AAU team after Porter finished eighth grade.
“When I was younger, most of the time, I was the tallest, strongest and most athletic person, so they tried to play me as a big,” Porter said. “But then as I got older and the girls really started getting big, I had to really work on my shooting, dribbling and all of that. Even my freshman year of high school, I averaged 20 points a game off all layups.”
Porter also used her athleticism on the volleyball court. In fact, she went on a visit to Division I Xavier for volleyball, but after tearing her ACL playing volleyball in her junior year, she knew basketball was her path forward.
Playing college basketball became a possibility early in high school for Porter with her athleticism. A big part of her development came when she switched from public school to private school in high school. Porter learned how to play a different role with the advanced competition in private school.
Looking at colleges, it was a waiting game for Porter to see which colleges were interested in her. She went to Wabasha Valley College, and after two years of a lot of team success, she got on Zuniga’s radar. After having layovers in Denver and seeing the Colorado scenery, Porter knew she wanted to live in Colorado at one point. After Zuniga reached out, that want turned into a reality.
“I know who the best JUCO teams are, and obviously, you want to find and get players from there,” Zuniga said. “We were just lucky enough that Makaya was still available. After our first few phone calls, I really enjoyed her personality, and I thought she'd be a great fit.”
Zuniga has been impressed with how Porter’s basketball IQ has grown throughout the season. It’s not easy learning a new system out of the junior-college level, and Porter has been really coachable.
Porter has the size and athleticism to be a Division I player, and it’s a goal that Porter had for college career. However, she’s happy here at FLC. She enjoys how Zuniga pushes the team to get in the gym and how she's always available to watch film. Zuniga thinks the next step for Porter is getting her more comfortable with her 3-point shot.
Before either Zuniga or Porter gets to next season, Porter wants to bring the team success she had in junior college to this season’s Skyhawks, as FLC is so close to getting to the postseason.
“I’m definitely excited for that … just hearing my teammates talk about how they want to go to the tournament,” Porter said. “It would be a big thing to do it.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
