Box Score BOX SCORE

SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster women's basketball team opened their Frontier Conference title defense by defeating Montana State-Northern 68-50 on Thursday night in the Behnken Field House. The win is the eighth straight this season and the 15th consecutive Frontier Conference regular season for the 19th-ranked Griffins. Westminster is now 12-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference action.

Holding an 18-17 advantage with 6:15 remaining the opening half, Westminster went on a 13-5 run to close the half and carry a 31-22 advantage into the intermission. Nicole Yazzie sparked the run with two makes from beyond the arc, including one to beat the shot clock buzzer with 20 seconds remaining.

“I was a little disappointed with our energy to start the game ad I take full responsibility for that,” head coach JD Gustin said. “They responded in the second half and I'm really proud of them for that. That is a good team we played tonight and they played hard.”

McKenzie Jessop took over the second half, scoring 19 points and grabbing six rebounds. She finished the night with a career high 30 points and her second career double-double behind 12 rebounds. Jessop shot 11-of-17 from the field and added five steals to her final line. Yazzie finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point territory.

“I told Jessop at halftime she has to be aggressive because when she is aggressive like that in the second half she is really good,” Gustin said of his senior forward.

Westminster shot 48.1% from the field in the game and had a 28-18 advantage in points in the paint. The Griffins also forced Northern into 18 turnovers that resulted in 23 points for the Griffins and 10 on the fast break. Westminster recorded 14 assists on their 25 field goals, led by five from Keshia Catten and four off the bench by Dani Evans. Defensively they held Northern to 35.6% shooting.

“We really wanted to take them out of what they wanted to do,” Gustin said of the Griffins defense. “Give them credit though, they kept playing but at home that is what we expect to do.”

Taylor Keller led the Skylights (9-8, 0-1) with 13 points and Zivile Gaizutyte had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. As a team, they out-rebounded the Griffins 33-30 and turned nine offensive rebounds into eight second chance points.

Westminster returns to action on Saturday, January 9 against Great Falls in the Behnken Field House. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.