DURANGO, Colo. --- The Western Colorado women's basketball team used a career high in scoring from Jessie Erickson and Samantha Coleman drained six 3-pointers to help the Mountaineers to a strong road victory over Fort Lewis 76-64 at Whalen Gymnasium on Saturday night to clinch the No. 2 seed in the RMAC Tournament.
 
Erickson scored a career-high 19 points to go along with six rebounds, six assists and three steals – including 15 points in the first half to help WCU (19-6 overall, 17-4) 32-24 lead into the half.
 
The lead was at eight still in the fourth quarter when Coleman drained four 3-pointers in a less than four-minute span to help give the Mountaineers a lead as large as 20 points over the Skyhawks (15-11, 11-10) before holding on for the 12-point win.
 
With the victory, the Mountaineers will be the No. 2 seed in the RMAC Tournament after Colorado Mesa defeated Adams State to clinch the regular-season RMAC title at 19-2 – two games up on WCU with the two teams scheduled to meet 5:30 p.m. Friday at Paul Wright Gym in each teams' season finale, a game with huge importance still when it comes to the regional rankings (WCU is No. 6, CMU is No. 4). The Mountaineers are still a game up on Westminster for third with a game to go – and even if the Griffins tie WCU for the No. 2 spot in the final game of the season, the Mountaineers own the head-to-head tiebreaker as they beat Westminster twice during the season.
 
On Saturday, Coleman paced the Mountaineers with 24 points – going 6-for-12 from 3-point range. Erickson was next with her career-high 19 points while freshman Hannah Cooper had 13 points, eight assists and five rebounds while Katie Dalton had 10 points and seven rebounds.
                                                                           
The Mountaineers shot 40.4 percent from the field, including 8-for-19 from 3-point range (42.1 percent). WCU was also 26-for-33 (78.8 percent) from the free-throw line.