When senior forward Kelsey Sorenson stays out of foul trouble, good things happen for her and Fort Lewis.
Sorenson played 31 minutes, which is the second most this year, along with a season-low two fouls. She poured in 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead Fort Lewis to a 71-50 road victory Saturday at Westminster.
The Skyhawks improved to 11-8 overall and 8-5 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference after it shot 49% from the field, 37% from the 3-point line and 93% from the free-throw line in the win.
Westminster fell to 3-16 overall and 1-12 in the RMAC after it shot 35% from the field and 22% from the 3-point line and 89% from the free-throw line.
“The key is we went into this game establishing that we wanted everyone to be together with everything,” Fort Lewis coach Taylor Harris said. “Last night it was a tough loss and the only way for us to rebound and get a great win is just do it together. We really showed that offensively on the basketball court too. Those extra passes just led to higher percentage shots.”
Fort Lewis had 13 assists on its 25 made baskets, which is the second most of the year.
Sorenson’s 21 points came on 9 of 16 shooting from the field and 3 of 3 shooting from the free-throw line. She also passed 1,500 career points. Sophomore guard Lanae Billy had 13 points on 5 of 12 shooting from the field and 3 of 8 shooting from beyond the 3-point line in only 23 minutes due to foul trouble.
“We just wanted to establish inside-out first,” Harris said. “Kelsey was in that groove where she felt confident, she had a really good confidence to her. We just kept trying to feed the ball and we knew that if we gave it to her and they helped inside she would just kick it out for 3-pointers but she just kept scoring.”
Westminster was led by Elizabeth Means’ 20 points after she shot 8 of 16 from the field, 1 of 1 from 3-point range and had nine rebounds.
Fort Lewis led 34-28 at half and put the clamps on Westminster defensively in the second half. Westminster shot under 30% in both quarters in the second half while the Skyhawks shot 64% from the field in the third and 57% from the field in the fourth quarter to finish off Westminster.
“At halftime, we wanted to get Lanae going,” Harris said “We were very deliberate about trying to get her the ball. She got a good look right away and when we see that ball go in right away, we just had an edge to us defensively. It wasn't really a big rah-rah speech at halftime. We just talked about staying together and brushing off the adversity and making sure that no matter what happens, we stay together and we just completely bought into defending.”
The Skyhawks return home to Whalen Gymnasium to play Colorado School of Mines next Friday at 5 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
