Losing both games of an early January road trip to New Mexico triggered the Skyhawks’ alarm clock.
The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team has won four out of five games since that turning point, and the Skyhawks will host both those teams this weekend.
“It was a really frustrating and tough road trip,” FLC head coach Jason Flores said. “Unfortunately it took losing a couple games to light a fire. We have the opportunity to get them at home now.”
FLC (11-7, 8-6 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) will play Western New Mexico at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Whalen Gymnasium and New Mexico Highlands at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Western N.M. (9-11, 6-9 RMAC) has won two of its last three games and boasts one of the most balanced offenses in the RMAC.
Three Mustangs average double-figure points per game, led by RaTanya Newsome’s 13.5 points per contest.
“It provides challenges. It’s easier if you’ve got one or two people that you can lock in on,” Flores said. “We have to do a better job to try and take them out of a comfort zone of what they want to do offensively.”
Western N.M. shot 46.3 percent from the field with four players in double figures in its previous victory.
N.M. Highlands (9-10, 5-10 RMAC) also carries a heavy amount of offensive firepower. The Cowgirls rank third in the RMAC at 71.4 points per game while shooting 37.5 percent from the field, which ranks 12th in the conference.
They make up for that gap by pulling down 18 offensive rebounds per game, the most in the league by 3½ boards.
“When we played there, we missed a ton of shots, and we let that affect our defense,” Flores said. “We went cold and lost momentum in the game.
“Hopefully we have a little more of a comfort zone at home.”
China Smith leads the Cowgirls in rebounding and scoring. She averages a double-double with 12.1 points per game and an RMAC-leading 10.7 rebounds per game.
FLC has held up on the defensive end recently, holding opponents under 40-percent shooting for the last five games.
Western N.M. was the last team to shoot above 40 percent against FLC.
The Skyhawks will be playing at home for the second consecutive weekend with a chance to climb out of the pack in the conference standings.
Five teams have between five and six losses in the RMAC standings, so a hot streak here and a cold streak there could clinch a home game in the first round of the conference tournament for FLC.
“It’s kind of a crazy year; you normally don’t see it that way,” Flores said. “There’s a lot of parity in the league. It forces you to really concentrate on every game.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
