Six straight wins for Westmont College women’s basketball

MONTECITO, Calif. - Westmont Women's Basketball (11-6, 7-3 PacWest) extended its winning streak to six with a 91-58 win over the Sharks of Hawai'i Pacific (7-8, 3-6). Every Warrior in uniform scored with four reaching double digits. Sage Kramer led the way, making 10 of 13 from the floor on her way to 26 points. Kramer made three of four from long distance and pulled down five rebounds.

“All-around, it was a really good team effort again,” said Westmont’s head coach Kirsten Moore. “Everyone that was suited up scored and there were a lot of great contributions from a lot of people. We are getting great contributions off of our bench consistently. Sage was so efficient and consistent.”

Also scoring in double figures were Jazmyn Shipp who tallied 16 points off the bench and collected five boards; Noemie Bariteau who recorded 11 points, five rebounds and four assists; and Molly Garnand who contributed 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Skyler Knight played 10 minutes for the Warriors, going three of four from beyond the arc to score nine points. Bailey Fong added eight points, and had a team-high six rebounds and four assists.

The Warriors’ bench scored 42 points in the contest.

“Some of our younger players could get discouraged over getting less playing time than they are used to getting. They also have to learn a new system and speed of play,” acknowledged Moore. “Instead, the improvement that our freshmen have made this year has been outstanding. I am so excited to see them have success out there with Skyler shooting the lights out tonight like she is capable of, and Annie Gibbons giving us great minutes and finishing strong down the stretch. Mariah Brown has stepped up for us and Jazmyn has stepped up a lot. All of that shows the growth of this team and that growth is encapsulated in the freshman class having such a great night out there tonight.”

Collectively, the four freshmen tallied 29 points, shot 64.3% (9 of 14) from the floor, sank five triples, pulled down eight rebounds, and dished off three assists in a combined 60 minutes of play.

“Obviously, there are ways we need to continue to grow so that we can be even better than we were tonight,” said Moore. “The thing I was most pleased about tonight was our assist-to-turnover ratio (1.75) going in the right direction. There are still too many turnovers in my opinion and some silly ones we didn’t need, but we are taking strides and focusing on the right things. I was pleased with the team effort out there tonight.”

The Warriors started the game on an 11-0 run. Garnand ignited the run with a jumper in the paint and Brown followed with a layup. After a jumper by Bariteau, Garnand added her second basket to make the score 8-0. Then, Kramer scored her first points of the night with a triple from the top of the key to make it an 11-0 game.

At the end of the opening frame, the Warriors held a 23-11 advantage with Kramer tallying eight first-quarter points and Garnand adding six.

Bariteau stepped up to lead the Warriors offensively in the second quarter. The junior guard tallied nine points, hitting two treys and making all three free throws after being fouled on another deep attempt. Knight also drained the first of her threes in the second frame as the Warriors went four of nine from 3-point range in the quarter. At halftime, Westmont held a 44-23 lead.

The Sharks found their footing in the third quarter and outscored the Warriors 19-17. Kramer and Shipp each scored five points, giving Westmont a 61-42 lead headed into the final frame.

Kramer capped off her performance with nine fourth-quarter points, the result of a layup, two jumpers and a trey. Shipp added six on a triple and three free throws. Knight made two of her long-distance bombs in the final two minutes of play.

For the game, Westmont shot 50.8% (33 of 65), including 48.0% from beyond the arc (12 of 25). The Warriors outrebounded the Sharks 41-34.

“We shot a pretty high percentage and we rebounded a high percentage of our misses – over 40 percent. It was everybody out there contributing and that bodes well for us as we keep marching on here in conference play.”

While no one on the squad had more than six rebounds, five Warriors had five or more.

Westmont is now halfway through the conference season and finds itself in fourth place in the PacWest standings. The Warriors are two and one-half games behind Azusa Pacific and Vanguard who are tied for first with conference marks of 10-1. Point Loma is in third place with a 9-2 record, one and one-half games ahead of the Warriors.

Westmont leads fifth-place Dominican by half a game and sixth-place Biola by a game and one-half.

At season’s end, the top six teams will qualify for the PacWest Championship. Vanguard, Menlo and Jessup, however, are ineligible for postseason play since they are in the transition process into NCAA DII. That means that if the season were to end today, Westmont would be the third seed in the tournament.

“We are a much different team than when we played our first games in November and December,” assessed Moore. “I hope that plays out. This is the first year that we have an unbalanced conference schedule and we have a lot of tough games coming up including all the top teams in the conference. The road is going to get tougher, but hopefully that helps us get better. We have to stay focused and continue improving if we want to keep having success.”

(Article courtesy of Westmont Athletics)