by Angela Roberts
DURANGO, Colo. – Aided by double-digit outings from three Skyhawks, the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team earned the series sweep over Westminster College in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play on Friday night, claiming a 57-53 win to close out the weekend.
Fort Lewis improved to 7-11 overall and 4-8 in RMAC play while Westminster dipped to 9-10, 5-6 RMAC.
The Skyhawks rebounded from a poor shooting performance last night to earn a 41.2 field goal percentage (21-of-51). Westminster shot 30.9 percent (21-of-68) from the field and just 18.2 percent (4-of-22) from deep. Fort Lewis earned nine three-pointers—one shy of a season-high. The Griffins won the rebound battle by pulling down 47 (19 offensive) to just 34 for the Skyhawks.
Freshman Lanae Billy led the team with 19 points (5-of-9 3pt) to go along with six rebounds. Junior Kelsey Sorenson had her third double-double of the season after contributing 13 points and 10 rebounds. Graduate student Kaitlyn Bell followed with 10 points and three boards. Sophomore Samantha Wattawa turned in her best game of the season with six points and four key rebounds. Westminster’s Ashley Greenwood led all players with 21 points.
Westminster jumped ahead early, but a huge three out of the hand of Bell set the tone early in a tightly contested game. Billy followed with her first three of the night to see a brief 7-4 Skyhawks lead, but the Griffins responded with a three moments later to knot it up. The following two minutes were defense-heavy before a Westminster jumper had the visitors up 9-7 with 2:44 to go. Fort Lewis looked to be heading into the second quarter down a pair, but Wattawa connected on a buzzer-beating three to give her team a 10-9 edge.
Billy opened the second quarter with a jumper before the Griffins reclaimed a one-point lead with back-to-back layups. Bell and Billy combined for eight points on a Skyhawks scoring run to bring the lead firmly back with 6:31 remaining in the quarter. The teams went scoreless through the following three minutes before a scoring surge closed out the half with Fort Lewis ahead 29-20.
The halftime message resonated with the Westminster squad, and the result was a 9-0 scoring run to tie it up 29-29 with seven minutes on the clock. Wattawa broke the spell with an and-one, followed by a Billy three to make it a 35-26 score. The teams traded points from there, including four from Sorenson, as the score stood at 46-38 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
Senior Alyssa Adams built the lead to 10 points early in the four quarter, connecting on a midrange jumper, but Westminster responded with a huge run to capture a 51-50 lead with 3:02 to go. Billy grabbed the lead right back with another three, and Sorenson followed it up with a huge converted offensive board to see things at 55-51 with under two minutes to go. Both sides earned a pair of free throws to close out the game in a 57-53 final.
