PUEBLO, Colo. – The Colorado State University Pueblo women's basketball squad picked up another home win at Massari Arena over Fort Lewis College 73-65 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
With the upset win, the ThunderWolves improve to 12-10 overall and 8-7 in the RMAC, while Fort Lewis falls to 11-11 overall, and 8-8 in the RMAC. More importantly, with the win, the Pack move up from ninth-place in the conference to seventh.
The Pack used a strong performance in the paint along with stifling defense to secure the victory. The Pack outscored Fort Lewis in the paint 46-28 and held the Skyhawks to just 31 percent shooting for the game.
The Pack were led by who else other than junior forward Alisha Little (Aurora, Colo./Northern Colorado) as she recorded her 16th double-double of the season, which is tied for the NCAA Division II lead with Lauryn Taylor of Francis Marion. Little scored 21 points, pulled down 13 rebounds, had six assists, five steals, and four blocks. Little is tied for third in Colorado Women's Collegiate history with 279 career blocks. Kim Good of Colorado Mines (1999-02) has the record with 286 career blocks. Little is currently second in the nation in blocks this season with 75, only trailing Hannah Giddey of Southern Nazarene.
Redshirt junior forward Autumn Watts (Centennial, Colo./McNeese State) continued to play her best ball of the season, scoring 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting and had five rebounds.
Freshman forward Leilani Love (Albuquerque, N.M., Albuquerque) put together a fantastic evening, giving Tommie Johnson great minutes off the bench as she scored 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting in just 15 minutes. Love and junior guard Shamahra Henderson (Denver, Colo./Cowley County) led the team in plus/minus at 11.
The Pack found themselves trailing after the first quarter 16-13, despite controlling the tempo of the game and having a better shooting performance. The Pack struggled to get the ball into Little early on as Fort Lewis made a concerned effort to take her out of the game with match-up zone, but Little did her damage on the offensive glass, scoring five points and pulling down seven rebounds.
Fort Lewis extended their lead to as many as eight points at the 7:15 mark in the second quarter at 23-15, but the Pack answered on a 6-0 run with buckets from Watts, Little, and a couple of free throws from junior guard Tomia Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Florida Gulf Coast) as the Pack did not let Fort Lewis break open the game. Fort Lewis' leading scorer Lanae Billy (16.4 ppg) got hot in the second quarter knocking down a couple of threes in the quarter to keep Fort Lewis rolling, but the Pack finished the half strong as Little knocked down a three and CSU Pueblo found themselves ahead at the break 29-28.
CSU Pueblo started the second half with energy as the scored five quick point out of the break from Watts and junior guard Landri Hudson (Aurora, Colo./Wyoming). The Pack forced Fort Lewis to take a timeout at the 6:40 mark after Little tossed in a second chance layup to put the Pack up 38-31. The Pack continued to dominate the third quarter as they scored 16 out of their 19 points in the quarter from the paint. Watts led the quarter with eight points and the Pack found themselves up 48-39 through three quarters.
Fort Lewis would not give up as they opened the fourth quarter with a quick 5-0 run to cut the CSU Pueblo lead down to four at 48-44 as Avery Evans made a driving layup and Billy knocked down another three. The closest the Skyhawks would get in the quarter was three at 53-50, but the Pack answered that with an 8-0 run with buckets from Watts, Love, and Little. Leading 63-52 with three minutes to go in the game, all the Pack needed to do was take care of the ball and make free throws down the stretch and they did just that. A few late baskets from Fort Lewis cut the lead back down to single digits, but the Pack prevailed and took home the victory 73-65.
UP NEXT FOR THE PACK
The Pack return tomorrow night at Massari Arena at 5:30 p.m. in what will a dog fight, as CSU Pueblo hosts fifth place Adams State who is 15-7 overall and 11-4 in RMAC play. CSU Pueblo dropped a close game earlier in the year to Adams State 69-62 on Dec. 8 in Alamosa, Colo. The Pack are tied for seventh place with Colorado Christian. Eight teams qualify for the RMAC Conference Tournament in March. Fans can watch the game on the RMAC Network, or listen to the game on 1350 AM Fox Sports Pueblo.
