Box score
 
DENVER — Tonight's 63-60 Metro State women's basketball victory over Fort Lewis lived up to its hype — albeit a year too late.
 
When the two teams met nearly exactly a year ago — Jan. 20, 2012, to be precise — No. 5 Metro State beat No. 4 Fort Lewis 78-51 in the Auraria Events Center. The game marked the first and only meeting between two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women's basketball teams simultaneously ranked in the Top 5.
 
This year, it came down to the wire between two unranked teams that were fighting for second place in the RMAC standings.
 
“It was a really hard, fought game,” said first-year FLC head coach Jason Flores. “We led for a good part of the first half. It was a back-and-forth affair in the second half and we took the lead late. Unfortunately, we had a couple of bad bounces on loose balls that they converted. I'm proud of our team. I told them that as long as we can take this and get right back on the track that we're on, we're going to be ok. They left it out on the court and nearly came up with a big road win.”
 
The Roadrunners (11-5 overall, 9-2 RMAC) appeared to have the upper hand inside of two minutes when they lead 57-52.
 
But Ashley Kuchar had other thoughts. The Skyhawk junior nailed three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give Fort Lewis (8-7, 7-4) a 58-57 lead.
 
“Ashley had a pretty good game and hit a couple of clutch shots late,” said Flores.
 
Cassie Lambrecht put the Roadrunners on top for good at 59-58 with a layup with 59 seconds left. After Kuchar missed a jumper, the Skyhawks were forced to foul and Kya DeGarmo buried both free throws with 17 seconds left to stretch the lead to 61-58. Erika Richards' layup trimmed the lead to a single point, but Lambrecht made two free throws with three seconds left to account for the final 63-60 margin.
 
Kuchar led all scorers with 17 points and went 5-of-8 from behind the arc. She was joined in double figures by teammates Erika Richards (13) and Christie Groh (12).
 
Metro State countered with a balanced attack as five players hit double digits: Amy Nelson and Lambrecht (12 each), Emily Wood (11) and twins Kristin and Brandi Valencia (10 each).
 
Kristin Valencia proved to be the difference on the glass, grabbing 15 rebounds as the Roadrunners won the rebounding battle by 15, 34-19.
 
Metro State also shot better than FLC. The Roadrunners knocked down 46.8 percent of their shots (22 of 47), while the Skyhawks shot a respectable 42.4 percent (21 of 52). FLC did better from long range, sinking six treys (37.5 percent) to MSUD's three (20.2 percent).
 
But the Roadrunners won the game from the line, making 16 of 19 attempts from the charity stripe (84.2 percent). FLC made just 12 of 18 attempts (.667).
 
“I'd have liked us to be a little bit better defensively,” said Flores, who struggled to something in his team's performance to complain about. “That's about the only thing that I can nitpick.
 
“But we're disappointed,” he added. “We really felt that we put ourselves in the position to be able to win these games. The players were hurting afterwards, but we'll use it as motivation. We'll have a big weekend coming up with two teams that we're nearly tied with in the conference standings.”
 
Fort Lewis returns to Whalen Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m. next Friday and Saturday for games against Colorado Christian (9-6, 6-5) and Colorado Mines (10-7, 7-4).
 
At the midway point of the RMAC regular season, the Skyhawks and Orediggers find themselves tied for fifth place, but just a game out of third (shared by Colorado State-Pueblo and UC-Colorado Springs). The Cougars are a game behind Fort Lewis and Mines.