By Ryan Owens
Herald Sports Writer
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Championship teams know how to elevate their game under the brightest of lights and when the pressure is greatest.
After a bit of a fast-and-loose performance in Tuesday's win over Seattle Pacific, one could be forgiven for questioning whether Fort Lewis College's women's basketball team could elevate their game enough to grab Division II's top prize. After all, their opponent, Franklin Pierce University, had lost just once all year, and boasted the National Player of the Year in Johannah Leedham, and her 27.1 points per game average.
Consider those questions answered.
The No. 6 Skyhawks saved one of their best performances for the one of the game's biggest stages. They held Leedham scoreless for 23 minutes, shot a blistering 53.8 percent from the field, and steamrolled the No. 2 Ravens 79-64 to earn a berth in the NCAA Division II National Championship Game on Friday.
“I think we definitely thought (playing for a title) was a possibility, and now that it's actually panned out that way, it's unbelievable,” FLC guard Laura Haugen said.
Leedham, FPU's all-everything senior forward, scored seven points in the first five minutes of the game, and the Ravens led 14-10 with 14:16 left in the first half.
From then on, it was all Fort Lewis. The Skyhawks (35-3) exploded for a 14-2 run to take a 24-16 lead, and never trailed again, building a lead as big as 20 points with 5:21 left in the second half and coasting to victory from there, allowing just a minor hiccup that allowed FPU to cut the lead to 75-64 with 1:27 left.
As for Leedham, she scored a season-low 13 points on 5 of 22 shooting. The Skyhawks zone and Audrey George specifically were mostly responsible for hounding Leedham during the 23 minute scoring drought, holding her to just three total shots in the last 15 minutes of the first half.
“I wasn't able to knock a shot down tonight,” she said. “It wasn't my night.”
Denial was key for the Skyhawks, who opted to try and do what nobody had done all year by shutting down Leedham instead of opting for the potentially safer option of trying to limit her teammates.
“We decided to keep playing our zone, even though it would be different people on her … It happened to be the worst (game) of her career against us, but I think we had an awful lot do to with that,” Kellogg said.
Franklin Pierce coach Steve Hancock said that while the Skyhawks' defense deserved some credit, his team's shooting performance should bear the brunt of the blame for the loss. The Ravens (32-2), who shoot an average of 45 percent from the field, connected on a brutal 27 percent of their attempts in the second half, and hit only 33.3 percent for the game, including several missed layups.
“We didn't shoot the ball very well. We must have missed 10 or 12 shots just under the hole,” he said.
It's starting to become fairly commonplace in this tournament for Haugen to pick up her performance when the spotlight shines the brightest. After a 16-point performance against Seattle Pacific that included a late steal that sealed the deal, Haugen scored 19 points in Wednesday's national semifinal. She helped boost a 40-29 halftime lead by hitting two key 3s to push the lead to 46-30 early in the second half, and had eight points in what was a much closer first half.
“I guess part of it, our careers are coming to an end, and you have to play like it's the last game you're ever going to play,” Haugen said of her performance.
FLC center Allison Rosel, who had a quiet 12 points in the national quarterfinal, had a virtuoso performance of her own on Wednesday, scoring 22 points and pulling down 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the year.
The reigning Central Region Player of the Year said that her previous game had little bearing on her mindset heading into a solid Final Four performance.
“I just come to play, and I just do my best no matter what,” she said. “I'm just looking forward to Friday now.”
Perhaps more impressive for the Skyhawks was the fact that they built a big lead without any points from Katie Mackey in the first half. Mackey, usually the Ms. Outside to Rosel's Ms. Inside, didn't score until connecting on a 3 with 9:41 left. The bucket was part of a quick six-point outburst that pushed the Fort Lewis lead to 61-42, created by an Abby Jackson 3, a critical FPU turnover, and Mackey's 3, prompting roars from the FLC partisans in attendance and a timeout by Hancock.
The reason for Mackey's quiet first half was foul trouble; she picked up foul No. 2 just over 6 minutes into the game. Fortunately for the Skyhawks, reliable senior reserve Lauren McCulloch provided some extra offense, pouring in 8 points in just 11 minutes in relief of Mackey in the first half.
“She's a high basketball IQ kid,” Kellogg said of his key reserve. “When she gets her feet set, it's usually going in.”
The foul bug bit Franklin Pierce as well. Forward Jewel White, who had a double-double in the quarterfinal win over Arkansas Tech, picked up three first-half fouls, and was limited to just six points.
Overall, the win was just an impressive team effort by a group that firmly believed that it'd be playing for a national championship since the early part of the season. Now, Fort Lewis has the chance to bring this magical run to what it believes is its proper conclusion against Emporia State at 6 p.m. Friday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and KIUP AM 930.
For the five seniors, it's a chance to bring their four-year odyssey to an end the way they've ended roughly 90 percent of their games the last three years: with a win.
“We've been looking forward to this since day one … working so hard in preseason for four years, all those crappy practices and tough losses, it's paid off,” Haugen said.
rowens@durangoherald.com
