Friday’s contest between the Fort Lewis women’s basketball team and Colorado School of Mines was such that the final score was not indicative of the entire 40 minutes of play.
The Skyhawks rallied early in the fourth quarter to cut the Orediggers’ lead to 62-59 with 7:22 left. But the wheels fell off for Fort Lewis, and the Skyhawks only scored three more points the rest of the way and lost 81-62 at Whalen Gymnasium.
Fort Lewis fell to 11-9 overall and 8-6 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play after shooting 41% from the field and 42% from the 3-point line.
Colorado School of Mines improved to 18-2 overall and 13-1 in RMAC play after shooting 42% from the field and 41% from 3-point range.
“You’ve got to give credit to Colorado School of Mines, they’re a top-10 team,” Fort Lewis coach Taylor Harris said. “They are as elite of an offensive team as we’ve seen in this league in a few years. They have the ability to make shots and all the credit tonight goes to them. They played extremely well and we played hard.”
Sophomore guard Lanae Billy led Fort Lewis with 24 points on 7 of 13 shooting from the field, 3 of 5 shooting from beyond the arc and 7 of 8 shooting from the free-throw line along with six steals. Junior forward Samantha Wattawa scored 15 points on 4 of 8 shooting off the bench, going 1 of 2 from beyond the arc and 6 of 6 from the charity stripe. She also had a team-high seven rebounds.
“She knew that this was a big game for her, especially with Kelsey getting into early foul trouble,” Harris said about Billy. “She had to really carry the load of our scoring. It’s just a tremendous job because Ashley Steffeck, one of the best defenders in the league, was guarding her the whole game and Lanae did a great job of finding her times to attack, finding her times to stay spaced.”
Steffeck led the Orediggers with 23 points after she shot 6 of 18 from the field, 4 of 8 from 3-point range and 7 of 8 from downtown. Jessica Rios also added 14 points for Colorado Mines.
Colorado Mines showed its size advantage to start off the game. The Orediggers had some crisp passing against the Skyhawks 2-3 zone and led 10-7 after four minutes.
Fort Lewis also moved the ball well at the end of the first. Wattawa shot a rare 3-pointer to put the Skyhawks up 12-10 with 2:30 left.
With penetration and ball movement, the Orediggers got inside the Fort Lewis 2-3 zone and finished in the last minute. Steffeck made a deep 3-pointer from the wing at the buzzer to push Colorado School of Mines ahead 20-14 after one quarter.
The Skyhawks mixed up their zone look to start the second quarter, but it didn’t matter. The Orediggers scored on their first two possessions and pushed ahead 25-14.
Billy got to the free-throw line numerous times on strong drives and made her free throws to cut the Mines lead to 28-20 with six minutes left.
With less than four minutes left, senior forward Kelsey Sorenson picked up her third foul which sent her to the bench. Steffeck hit another 3-pointer in transition off a steal and pushed the Orediggers’ lead to 38-25 with 2:45 to go.
Fort Lewis struggled to corral defensive rebounds which led to one of the more dangerous plays in basketball, a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound. Josephine Howery buried a long ball with 2:12 left to put the Mines lead to 41-28.
“We got out-rebounded by 18 and they just got so many extra possessions, nearly 20 more shots,” Harris said. “It’s just really hard, when you give up 19 offensive rebounds, it’s really hard to overcome that. We’ve got to clean that up and try and cut that in half.”
Sophomore Kate Gallery showed off her ability to put the ball on the deck in the second quarter. She was effective with some post-moves and some baby hooks to help the Skyhawks stay in the game.
The Orediggers led 43-31 at half behind Steffeck’s 20 points.
“She was great getting in space, our guards got low in the zone and those closeouts were just really long,” Harris said about Steffeck. “She’s a graduate student, has been playing five or six years and is a really good player.”
Fort Lewis got in the bonus halfway through the third quarter with numerous aggressive drives to the basket by multiple players. Wattawa hit four free throws in two possessions cut the deficit to 51-46 with 3:10 left.
The crowd rose to its feet and roared with approval after Billy banked in a 3-pointer and Misner hit a turnaround jump shot to cut the Orediggers lead to 54-51 with 1:59 left in the third. Mines led 59-55 after three quarters.
Foul trouble plagued Sorensen once again. She picked up a foul with 8:17 left in the fourth off the ball and fouled out after only nine minutes of play.
Back-to-back layups gave the Orediggers some breathing room with a 66-59 lead. Mines continued to get inside and punish the Skyhawks’ limited size without Sorenson.
A 3-pointer by Rios with 2:18 left sealed the game.
Fort Lewis will host Metropolitan State University of Denver on Saturday, starting at 4 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
