Skyhawks outshoot, outlast Pack

The CSU-P women had their season long six game win streak snapped on Friday, 63-54, by the 11th ranked Fort Lewis Skyhawks. The Pack were only one game shy of tying the lady’s school record win streak of seven games, but couldn’t contain the sharp-shooting of the Skyhawks.

“They made their shots, we didn’t. They made their free throws, we didn’t,” Coach Kip Drown said.

The thing that killed the Pack was their free throws. They made only 47 percent, hitting on only eight of their 17 trips to the charity stripe. Fort Lewis on the other hand hit 88 percent of their free throws, making 15 of their 17 trips.

The other part of the Pack’s bid that suffered was their 3-point shooting. This season they have hit about 38 percent of their 3-point shots, but this game that number took a hit. A horrible second half, when the Pack shot 1 for 14, led to them hitting only 20 percent of their shots on the day.

The 54 point output by the CSU-P ladies was the lowest since Dec. 15 in a loss to Metro State.

The Pack were only down eight at the break, and that wasn’t bad considering the Skyhawks shot an impressive 48 percent from the field in the first half, and 46 percent from behind the arc. The Skyhawks lead the nation in shooting percentage. The Pack on the other hand made only 30 percent of their first half shots from the field and 31 percent from 3-point land.

CSU-P came out of the break with electric defense forcing missed shots, controlling the boards and holding the Skyhawks to only six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The run was largely in part to Sarah Staggs, who tied for the game high with 16 points along with Mary Rehfeld. Staggs contributed four points, one rebound, one steal and one block during the run. Rehfeld capped the run when she was fouled on a made lay-up, and hit the free throw to give the Pack their only lead of the game.

From that point on it was all Fort Lewis, who lengthened their win streak to 16 games, led by Allison Rosel with a double-double scoring 13 points and bringing down 10 boards. Teammate Audrey George was just one point and one rebound shy of a double-double herself with nine points and nine rebounds. Five of her rebounds were on the offensive side helping her team get second chance points.

Along with Staggs’ 16 points, she brought down 10 rebounds to be the first Pack player to record a double-double since Lindsay Black did it on Nov. 23.

With the loss, the Pack dropped to 14-6 overall and 8-3 in RMAC play. The Skyhawks improved to 19-1 and 12-0 in the conference while stretching their lead in the Western Division. The Pack stay in 2nd place in the division, but if Adams State wins tonight, the two teams will be tied. CSU-P holds that tie-breaker, but the squads will meet up in a critical game in Alamosa on Feb. 5.

CSU-P will attempt to start a new winning streak tomorrow night against Mesa State, at 6 p.m. at the Colorado State Fair Events Center.

Posted in Sports