DURANGO, Colo. – Fort Lewis' Sydney Candelaria scored on a driving layup with 5.2 seconds left as the Skyhawks held off MSU Denver 63-61 Friday night in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women's basketball.
MSU Denver raced out to a 31-17 lead midway through the second quarter, but Fort Lewis clawed its way back within 37-28 at halftime and eventually took a 51-49 lead with 1:47 left in the third period for its first lead since it was 2-0 early in the game.
The Roadrunners fell behind by as many as six points, at 55-49 with 8:22 left. But
Maggie Justinak's 3-pointer broke a drought of eight minutes without a field goal and MSU Denver fought to the finish.
"We started off great, and we knew they'd make a run," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach
Tanya Haave said. "We had a stretch where we got tentative, but then we came back, hung tough and battled. We just can't put ourselves in those situations on the road."
Mariah Schroeder's baseline jumper tied the game 59-59 with 2:06 left, and then Schroeder hit a free throw with 41 seconds to go to give the Roadrunners a 60-59 lead.
After a Fort Lewis basket,
Jaela Richardson tied the game 61-61 with a free throw with 10.1 seconds to play.
Candelaria's game-winner allowed Fort Lewis to improve to 9-2 overall and 5-1 in the RMAC.
MSU Denver (4-8, 3-3) plays again Saturday at 5:30 p.m. against Adams State (2-10, 2-4).
MSU Denver, shooting 74.8 percent from the free throw line coming into the game, made 13 of 20 (65 percent) for the night, including 3 of 8 in the final 3:25. Fort Lewis, shooting 59.6 percent from the line coming into the game, made 13 of 16 for 81.3 percent.
Richardson and
Bree Wellington each scored 15 points to lead MSU Denver, while Richardson had a team-best nine rebounds and Wellington added eight.
Morgan Lewis had 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals.
"Not hitting free throws and not hitting shots in general was the difference in the game," Haave said. "We played really hard, but I'm not sure how disciplined we played, and we'll have to fix that. I loved our effort and our competitive spirit, but we just need to tighten some things up."
