by Angela Roberts
DURANGO, Colo. – Late scoring by the UCCS women’s basketball team resulted in a 65-56 for the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play on Friday night inside of Whalen Gymnasium. Freshman Lanae Billy established a new career-high with 26 points in the effort.
Fort Lewis dropped to 6-7 overall and 3-4 in RMAC play while UCCS improved to 5-9, 4-4 RMAC.
“We have to give credit to UCCS, they came in and did what they do well while playing really hard,” said head coach Taylor Harris. “This is a game that we can learn from. We can look at this being our first home loss and other things like that, but this is a chance for us to look in the mirror and see how we can get better.”
The Skyhawks shot 34 percent (16-of-47) from the field versus a 40 percent (26-of-65) clip for the Mountain Lions. Fort Lewis dropped in seven shots from beyond the arc compared to zero from UCCS. The visitors took advantage of 16 offensive rebounds and 27 turnovers on the side of the Skyhawks.
Billy’s 26 points led all players, and the freshman was 5-of-7 from three for the contest. Junior Kelsey Sorenson followed with 10 points and five rebounds while graduate student Kaitlyn Bell had nine points and seven boards. UCCS was led by Jessica Nation’s 18 points, followed by Maison White (15pts) and Gracie Haneborg (10pts).
The first quarter saw a trio of tied scores in the opening three minutes, including a 7-7 score off a Bell layup. The Mountain Lions took control in the following three possessions to open up a gap, but a pair of threes from Billy closed out the opener with Fort Lewis trailing 18-17.
Sophomore Avery Evans and Billy teamed up with a bucket to begin the second quarter as the teams found another tie, this time at 20 apiece. Billy connected on her third three of the half to give the Skyhawks their first lead, 23-22, but the Mountain Lions quickly tacked on three to go ahead again. The UCCS lead didn’t last long though, and another pair of threes off the hand of Billy had her team ahead 30-25 with 3:30 to go. The teams were tough down the stretch, and a late three-point play put the visitors up 37-35 at the half.
Sorenson made two from the charity stripe early in the third quarter, resulting in another tied score before UCCS went ahead 43-37 with six minutes remaining. The score eventually moved to 45-40 and stayed that way for several minutes. Fort Lewis regrouped and ended the quarter on a 5-0 run to carry a 45-45 mark into the final 10 minutes of play.
Fort Lewis took the lead early in the fourth quarter behind a pair of free throws by Billy, but an 8-0 UCCS run had the visitors firmly ahead 53-47 with 5:27 on the clock. The gritty Skyhawks fought to tie it up 55-55 with two minutes to go, but the UCCS defense held strong from there. Fort Lewis scored just one point down the stretch as the visiting Mountain Lions emerged with a 65-56 win.
“Sometimes it seems like you are using so much energy to fight to stay in the game, and you just run out of gas down the stretch. We trailed for nearly 30 minutes tonight and couldn’t find that late burst to finish out the game,” said Harris.
