Sophomore guard Lanae Billy looked like her best self Saturday afternoon. She was hitting deep 3-pointers from all over, got to the basket and to the free-throw line.
However, Black Hills State hit shots as well and dominated the rebounding margin 50-33 en route to a 77-74 overtime win over Fort Lewis, despite Billy’s career night.
Billy tallied a career-high 28 points on 9 of 16 shooting from the field, 5 of 11 shooting from 3-point range and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line.
“Lanae did a really good job of having a change of pace, to be able to be a little more unpredictable with getting the ball back and she played really well in transition,” Skyhakws coach Taylor Harris said. “She played really well defensively with four steals and I'm just really proud of her as well. She just had a confidence and a swagger to her that was really cool to see. It's hard because she's been now faced guarded for 90 minutes this weekend.”
Fort Lewis fell to 8-5 overall and 5-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after shooting 35% from the field and 32% from 3-point range.
Sophomore forward Kate Gallery had 15 points on 5 of 15 shooting overall and 3 of 8 from 3-point range. Junior guard Sadie Misner had 10 points.
Black Hills State improved to 7-4 overall and 4-3 in RMAC play after shooting 41% from the field and 32% from 3-point range.
Morgan Hammerbeck led the Yellow Jackets with 23 points on 8 of 19 shooting from the field and 5 of 12 shooting from beyond the arc as well as nine rebounds. Ellie Moore had 13 points.
“We had to live with some stuff because we were just trying to really speed the game up and make them uncomfortable,” Harris said. “They did a really good job of looking for the extra passes consistently. She (Hammerbeck) just happened to be open a lot when we were out of rotation and I thought we contested a lot of her shots. But she's just a really good shooter. She's just a really good player playing at home. As good as we did, she just was really good tonight.”
Both teams struggled shooting the ball in the first quarter, but the Yellow Jackets were 4 of 9 from deep and took a 16-14 lead.
Then in the second quarter, the Skyhawks showed their offensive potential with 23 points in the second quarter on 60% shooting from 3-point range.
“It was interesting tonight, we defended really well in the second quarter and we shot it well in the second quarter,” Harris said. “We defended well in the fourth quarter and shot it well in the fourth quarter as well. So in those closing quarters, we were really good and that's where you need to be really good on the road. But in overtime, we were depleted, tired out there.”
The Skyhawks lead 37-34 at halftime but struggled in the third quarter and didn’t make a single 3-pointer, trailing by two heading into the fourth.
Fort Lewis and Black Hills State were within a possession of each other throughout the fourth before Billy hit a deep 3-pointer close to 30 feet out from the top of the key to give the Skyhawks a 65-64 lead with 1:10 left. But Hammerbeck got a good look for the Yellow Jackets with great ball movement and made a 3-pointer to put Black Hills State up 67-65 with 58 seconds left.
Gallery then came through in the clutch off a cross-court pass from Billy. Gallery drove to the lane and put up a floater to tie the game with 30 seconds left. The game then went into overtime.
In overtime, the Skyhawks struggled to generate good looks and Billy’s first basket in overtime was off an offensive rebound. Fort Lewis’ aggressiveness did not pay off like it did Friday night. In the end, the Yellow Jackets won the game from the free-throw line.
Fort Lewis resumes its road trip Jan. 12 at University Colorado Colorado Springs.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
