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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

WBB
[Chris Neal/Shooter Imaging]
72
Fort Lewis FLC 2-11,1-6 RMAC
74
Winner South Dakota Mines SDSMT 1-12,1-6 RMAC
Fort Lewis FLC
2-11,1-6 RMAC
72
Final
74
South Dakota Mines SDSMT
1-12,1-6 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Fort Lewis FLC 18 14 19 21 72
South Dakota Mines SDSMT 19 24 19 12 74

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | Angela Roberts, Athletic Communications Assistant

Comeback Effort Falls Short for FLC Women's Basketball on the Road

RAPID CITY, S.D. – The comeback effort fell short for the Fort Lewis College women's basketball team in its first game of the new year, dropping a 74-72 decision to South Dakota Mines in Tuesday evening. Fort Lewis falls to 2-11 overall and 1-6 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference while South Dakota Mines improves to 1-12, 1-6 RMAC.

"For a team that has been on the road already for two days, we did a great job of being strong. Road games in the conference with long travel are very physically and emotionally taxing," said head coach Taylor Harris. "This was our longest trip, and you wouldn't have known that given the energy we played with tonight. I thought we played really hard and our bench energy was tremendous."

The Skyhawks shot 50 percent from the field (27-of-54) and 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from three. The Hardrockers shot 43.6 percent (24-of-55) from the field and 43.5 percent (10-of-23) from beyond the arc. Redshirt senior Sydney Candelaria led the team with 23 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Redshirt junior Brooke McGee followed with a career-high 14 points while picking up five rebounds.

"Right away you look at Brooke's career night with scoring," acknowledged Harris. "She really stepped up big, filling a huge gap with a couple players out of the lineup. Piper Terry did a great job in her first start, and her physicality rebounding helped us out a lot. I thought a lot of players stepped up, and that's great to see."

Fort Lewis defense kept the opposition off the board through the first three minutes of play before a Hardrocker three-pointer shifted the score to 4-3. South Dakota Mines started the heat up in the ensuing minutes, momentarily overtaking the lead until a Skyhawks three had the score at 9-8 with 3:49 to go. Offense for both teams started to make up for lost time, putting away shot after shot to settle the score at 19-18 in favor of South Dakota Mines after one quarter of play.

The Hardrockers held on to the narrow lead, countering each Skyhawk strike to maintain a one-point edge through two minutes of the second quarter. Freshman Samantha Wattawa reclaimed the lead for the Skyhawks after dropping in a pair of free throws to make it 28-27 with 6:11 remaining. From there, South Dakota Mines benefitted from a 7-0 scoring run to force a Fort Lewis timeout. The Hardrockers saw their largest lead of the night, going up 40-30 behind a free throw with two minutes to play. The lead held, sending the teams into the halftime break with South Dakota Mines ahead 43-32.

South Dakota Mines used turnovers to build on the lead in the third quarter, taking a 49-34 lead after two minutes of action. McGee slowed the building momentum with a three, bringing her point total to 14 for the outing to set a career high. Redshirt junior Alyssa Adams drained a three from deep to cut into the lead with 3:58 to go, but the Hardrockers answered immediately with a three to move the score to 55-42. Candelaria heated up with a pair of driving layups to pull Fort Lewis within ten points. Attempts from the charity stripe were exchanged in the final minute, allowing South Dakota Mines to carry a 62-51 lead into the final quarter of play.

The Skyhawks chipped away at the lead to open the fourth quarter, earning buckets from redshirt freshman Jana Conjero and Candelaria to bring the score to 64-56. Candelaria continued in her efforts to bring the Skyhawks back, draining a three to cut the lead to 66-59 with 7:20 remaining. The comeback effort continued as the clock ran down to 3:06 after a three from redshirt freshman Ava Strange moved the score to 69-66.  Conjero hit a clutch three with just over a minute to go, pulling the Skyhawks within one at 73-72. The home team added one point to the lead with a free throw, going up 74-72, and a pair Skyhawk turnovers but a stop to the attempted comeback. Fort Lewis outscored South Dakota Mines 21-12 over the final 10 minutes.

"In the fourth quarter we really played with a sense of urgency. Being down 11 points going into the fourth, we knew we had to make some adjustments to speed the game up and generate extra possessions--our team did a good job of executing those adjustments," said Harris. "The evolution of our team going into the second half of the season has to have that sense of urgency from the beginning of the game."

Fort Lewis (2-11, 1-6 RMAC) will have a couple days to regroup before getting back on the bus for a Friday night meeting with MSU Denver (6-4, 2-3 RMAC). Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. inside the MSUD Auraria Event Center.
 
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