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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Bailey Osmer 1.17
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC junior Bailey Osmer led all Skyhawks with 15 points in Friday's loss to Western Colorado (File Photo).
72
Fort Lewis FLC 11-4,6-3 RMAC
84
Winner Western Colo. WC 10-4,8-2 RMAC
Fort Lewis FLC
11-4,6-3 RMAC
72
Final
84
Western Colo. WC
10-4,8-2 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Fort Lewis FLC 18 21 22 11 72
Western Colo. WC 21 21 24 18 84

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

Four Skyhawks finish in double-figures, but FLC falls on the road to Western Colorado

GUNNISON, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College women's basketball team shot the ball well enough to win on Friday when it tipped off its western slope road trip against Western Colorado University. Unfortunately for the Skyhawks, so did the hometown Mountaineers as they were able to hold on for a high-scoring 84-72 final.

Fort Lewis (11-4 overall, 7-3 RMAC) finished the evening a respectable 28-of-63 (44%) from the field on Friday, a touch above its season average of 40%, but were unable to string enough stops together as Western Colorado (10-4 overall, 8-2 RMAC) shot an even 50% (29-of-58) inside the friendly confines of Paul Wright Gym.

"Defensively, we really struggled guarding and really struggled identifying players and their tendencies," said Fort Lewis College head coach, Orlando Griego. "We have to do a better job of making sure that we're following through with what we need to do, consistently. We were really consistent in that first half and then went away from our tendencies."

The Skyhawks had four players finish in double-figures, led by junior forward Bailey Osmer as the transfer set a career-high with 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting.

Joining her was senior guard Kayla Herrera-Flores with 12 points — her best scoring night since she posted 11 points against CSU-Pueblo on Dec. 7 — while juniors Jordan Carter and Sydney Candelaria followed with 11 points and 10 points, respectively.

"That's something we've been really focusing on. We really wanted those two to take on more of a scoring role and get back to our brand of basketball of having multiple players capable of scoring in double-figures," said Griego of Osmer and Herrera-Flores. "We want to be more of an offensive threat as a team and those two did a really nice job attacking the basket."

After trailing 42-39 at the break, FLC was able to cut the deficit to one point at 62-61, courtesy of a three-point play cashed in by Osmer with 40 ticks remaining in the third quarter.

Western had an answer, though, going on a 12-3 run spanning the final seconds of the third quarter and first 4:37 of the fourth to build its cushion back up to 10 at 74-64. FLC was unable to claw any closer than eight points the rest of the way.

"We'd work really hard to make it a 1-2 possession game and then Western would fire back with a run of its own," Griego said. "Our girls worked really hard, but we weren't able to get those key stops out of a timeout or a big momentum switch. And credit to Western, they did a really nice job adjusting and being able to score in key moments when they needed to."

Fort Lewis will now look to bounce back Saturday with a tough test against the current RMAC leaders in Colorado Mesa University (14-2 overall, 10-0 RMAC). Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in Grand Junction between the two conference rivals.

"Biggest message to the team was to stay positive, continue to give everything we have and continue to show toughness," Griego said. "Staying consistent and playing hard is the biggest things with our team. We're going to play hard and it'll be a great game (Saturday)."
 
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