Box Score

DURANGO, Colo. — In the battle for first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women's basketball standings, No. 5 Fort Lewis (16-1 overall, 11-1 in the RMAC) ran away from No. 14 Metro State (15-1, 11-1) 73-47 tonight at Whalen Gymnasium.

“I thought our focus and preparation this week in practice was as good as it's been all year,” said sixth year FLC head coach Mark Kellogg. “It showed tonight. We came out with focus and determination. I knew the energy and effort would be there because it's easy to get excited about these kinds of games.”

The Skyhawk coach cited defense and rebounding as the keys to victory.

“I think we won the game on the defensive end,” Kellogg said. “I was proud of the way we battled. Defensively that was as active as we can get. That's the best this group has defended — the entire team.”

The Skyhawks' pressure defense forced the Roadrunners to go cold from the field. Metro shot just .320 (16 of 50) from the field and a paltry .231 (six of 26) in the second half. Long-range shooting was virtually nonexistent for the Roadrunners, as they converted just two of 10 treys (.200). FLC forced 24 MSCD turnovers and notched 13 steals.

With center Jenna Santistevan grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds, the Skyhawks outrebounded the Roadrunners 36-29.

“Jenna on the boards was just fantastic,” said Kellogg. “We outrebounded the nation's leading rebounding team and we competed on the boards.”

The RMAC's leading scorer, Dana Schreibvogel, scored 22 points and grabbed eight caroms, making seven of 12 field goals and eight of nine foul shots.

“Dana obviously offensively got it going as she just always does,” said Kellogg. “We balanced [our offense] around here.”

The Skyhawk skipper thought Mary Rose Paiz (15 points) and Katerina Garcia (nine points, five assists) did a good job complementing Schreibvogel and picking up the scoring slack in a game that saw FLC's senior point guard, Abby Jackson, held scoreless by MSCD's perimeter defense.

“Mary hit some big shots for us,” said Kellogg. “I thought Kat was the best she's been all year in running our offense.”

No Roadrunner scored in double digits. Brandi Valencia came off the bench to lead the way with nine points, while three players — Cassondra Bratton, Jasmine Cervantes and Alyssa Benson — each scored eight.

“It was a good bounce-back for us,” said Kellogg. “Maybe we did learn a lesson last week.”

The Skyhawks suffered their only loss of the 2010-11 campaign a week ago at Colorado Christian, surrendering a 17-point second half lead in an eventual 80-79 loss.

With Christian's 61-47 win at Western State and FLC's triumph over MSCD tonight, there's now a log jam atop the RMAC women's basketball standings. Fort Lewis, Metro State and CCU are all 11-1 in league games.

Fort Lewis extended its school-record home winning streak to 40 games tonight.

The Skyhawks wrap up their two-game homestand at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow night when they host Regis (7-9, 6-6) in Whalen Gymnasium. The Rangers lost 78-59 at Adams State tonight.