Written By: Durango Herald Sports Staff

February 13, 2010.  Las Vegas, NM. - After routing New Mexico Highlands 94-40 on Jan. 30, Fort Lewis College coach Mark Kellogg described the victory as “almost perfect." While the rematch in Las Vegas, N.M., was more of a “business-like" effort according to Kellogg, the result was pretty much the same.

The Skyhawks led by 20-plus points for most of the second half, en route to an 83-55 victory over the Cowgirls on Friday night.

Kellogg said that the Skyhawks' quality of play wasn't quite up to the level of the teams' January meeting.

“It definitely was not close compared to what we did at home," he said. “It was kind of a business-like approach would be the best way to describe it."

While it may not have been the coach's ideal game, it was more than effective according to the game plan the Skyhawks (23-2, 13-1 RMAC) set for themselves going into today's game at CSU-Pueblo. The goal was to pull out to a big enough lead to get some of the regulars some rest before the rivalry game.

“The coaching staff was talking about resting some players before the game," Kellogg said. “It was one of the things we wanted to do was to rest people. We wanted to get lots of kids lots of minutes."

The Skyhawks began emptying the bench shortly after Laura Haugen scored three of her 10 points, giving FLC a 55-35 lead with less than 14 minutes to play. Highlands would cut the lead to 18 twice the rest of the half but would get no closer.

Fort Lewis built a big cushion by virtue of having five scorers reach double figures. Aside from Haugen's 10-point effort, Allison Rosel led the Skyhawks with 15 points. Audrey George scored 13 points, followed by Katie Mackey with 12 and Mary Rose Paiz with 10.

Ashley Logan led Highlands (9-12, 4-10) with 14.

While it may not have been perfect, Kellogg was happy with how his team dominated both the offensive glass (18 offensive rebounds) and the scoreboard.

“I didn't think they completely ever threatened," he said. “We had a big lead almost all the way through … then the last group came in and extended it even further."

With the victory over Highlands now behind them, FLC now can set its sights on tonight's road tilt with CSU-Pueblo, which claimed second in the RMAC West Division with a win Friday at home against Adams State. Kellogg said that the Skyhawks subtly prepared for the Thunderwolves earlier in the week, before turning attention to the Cowgirls.

Kellogg expects to run into a less subdued crowd tonight in Pueblo, not to mention playing in a game where both teams know what the other likely plans to do. FLC won the season's first matchup 82-68 on Jan. 29 in Durango.

“They know our system pretty well, and we know theirs pretty well," he said. “We'll try to tweak a few things.

“We're excited to be in a game like that. There'll be a pretty good crowd and two pretty good teams. I'm looking forward to it."

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