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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Katrina Chandler 12.13
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC junior Katrina Chandler scored a career-high 19 points in Friday's win. (File Photo)
61
Winner Fort Lewis FLC 7-1,3-0 RMAC
54
South Dakota Mines SDSMT 2-5,1-3 RMAC
Winner
Fort Lewis FLC
7-1,3-0 RMAC
61
Final
54
South Dakota Mines SDSMT
2-5,1-3 RMAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Fort Lewis FLC 18 16 14 13 61
South Dakota Mines SDSMT 9 9 19 17 54

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

FLC women remain unbeaten in RMAC action with 61-54 road win over South Dakota Mines

RAPID CITY, South Dakota — Playing its first road game of the 2019-2020 season, the Fort Lewis College women's basketball team showed no signs of jetlag from the long jaunt up to South Dakota as the Skyhawks ambushed the Hardrockers early and rolled to a 61-54 victory.

Fort Lewis (7-1 overall, 3-0 RMAC) doubled-up South Dakota School of Mines (2-5 overall, 1-3 RMAC) in the first quarter to take an 18-9 lead, and pushed the advantage all the way up to 21 at 34-13 with 2:17 remaining in the first half.

"Pre-game that's exactly what we said. We needed to take the crowd out of the game early, start off fast, and stick to our game plan," said Fort Lewis head coach, Orlando Griego. "Credit to our girls. I thought our coaching staff did a nice job having them prepared, we had a great week of practice, and the girls executed the plan really well."

The Skyhawks, winners of six straight games, left the Hardrockers shell-shocked in the first half, taking a 34-18 lead into the break while holding the home team to a dismal 25% shooting performance (6-of-24) through the first 20 minutes.

Fort Lewis alternated its defensive looks throughout the evening, which included a matchup 2-3 zone that bogged down the Hardrockers' offense in the first half.

"One thing we really hung our hat on was our defense," Griego said. "We were doing a nice job in our man defense, but we noticed some key players of (SDSM) stepped out and so we wanted to run zone. It threw another wrinkle in there to make them adapt to."

Leading the offensive charge for the Skyhawks was Durango's own Katrina Chandler as the junior poured in a career-high 19 points to go with six assists versus just one turnover in her 37 minutes.

It was the first game in double-figures for Katrina since Nov. 9 against Eastern New Mexico, but the pass-first point guard showed she's very capable of scoring the ball as she shot an economical 8-of-15 from the floor and 3-of-6 from 3-point range.

"As we saw what they were doing, we told Katrina at the very beginning that she really needed to be aggressive and shoot the ball," Griego said. "They were going under ball screens. Katrina works on her shot and game so much that we told her we needed her to take those shots. They started falling and on top of (the 3-pointers) she was attacking the basket to give her a balanced attack and make her hard to guard."

Junior forward Jordan Carter complimented the one-two punch as she tallied 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

Despite the big efforts from Carter and Chandler, the Hardrockers were able to hang around in the second half, inching all the way back within six at 1:54 mark of the third quarter at 43-37.

Fort Lewis responded, though, as junior Chloe Warrington nailed a 3-pointer on the ensuing Skyhawks' possession and fellow junior Bailey Osmer cashed in a steal and layup in transition for two of her eight points to bump the FLC lead back up to 11 entering the fourth.

"It's a credit to South Dakota Mines that they didn't give up and kept working hard to get back in it," Griego said. "But our girls continued to work. When Chloe hit that shot, it was a huge shot for us and we didn't lose our composure."

Fort Lewis will look to keep its undefeated start to the RMAC season rolling in a Saturday matinee against Black Hills State University to close out its first road trip of the season. Tip-off against the Yellow Jackets (5-4 overall, 2-2 RMAC) is set for 4 p.m. in Spearfish, South Dakota.

"Getting road wins are huge in the RMAC and being able to do that tonight is just a huge credit to our girls," Griego said. "But we're going to have a huge game against Black Hills State tomorrow. We're in for a big game and our girls know that. Our girls are going to stay hungry. We're not going to allow them, and they're not going to allow themselves, to get complacent or content. These girls really want to get better and win."
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