Fort Lewis College played very bit like a Division I women’s basketball team Friday and Saturday in tough games in Utah.
The Skyhawks opened the season with a 77-67 exhibition loss to Brigham Young University on Thursday before falling 77-69 to Utah of the Pac-12 Conference in another exhibition Friday.
“We were playing back-to-back games against very good D1 teams, and Utah didn’t play (Thursday night),” FLC head coach Jason Flores said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It was going to be interesting to see how we played this second game against high-level competition. We stepped right back up to the plate.”
Utah went on an early run trying to take FLC out of the game early, but the Skyhawks weathered the storm and trailed by only one point with roughly 2 minutes to play.
Transfer guard Astera Reed scored 19 points and had six rebounds for the Skyhawks. Mary Rambo added 10 points and five rebounds before fouling out. Sydni Brandon added nine points and six rebounds, and Kylie Santos had seven points.
FLC simply couldn’t slow down 6-foot-6 center Emily Potter. The Utes post player scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds before fouling out.
“We had no answer for her. She’s skilled and really hurt us,” Flores said.
FLC will return home to play two regional games in the Skyhawks Regional Classic next weekend at Whalen Gymnasium.
“The trick is going to be bottling all the good that happened this week and fixing the few small things that didn’t,” Flores said. “We’ve got two big regional games to open the regular season right off the bat, and it’s a big tournament. Hopefully people are excited and the crowd comes out.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
