Box Score SALT LAKE CITY – The 16th-ranked Westminster College women's basketball team completed the regular season with a 64-54 win over great Falls on Saturday night in the Behnken Field House.
Westminster finishes the regular season at 20-7 overall and 13-1 in the Frontier Conference. The win gives the Griffins a seventh consecutive 20-win season while they also claimed a fourth straight Frontier Conference championship. Great Falls finishes the regular season at 9-18 overall and 3-11 in league.
It wasn't an easy game to finish the year for the Griffins. With Westminster ahead 20-18 with eight minutes to play in the first half, UGF put together nine consecutive points to help them to a 27-27 halftime advantage. The game stayed close well into the second half and with 10:23 to play UGF held a 41-40 advantage. The Griffins put the game away behind a 17-5 run to take a 60-48 lead with 1:41 left.
After shooting a season-low 19.4% in the opening half, Westminster bounced back to shoot 57.7% after intermission to finish at 36.8%. They recorded 15 assists on 21 made field goals while committing just six turnovers. They made seven of the 22 attempts from beyond the arc and went 15-of-19 at the foul line. The Griffins finished with 32 rebounds and had 11 second chance points from 13 offensive rebounds.
“We played hard and we're a little too emotional with it being senior night,” head coach
Shelley Jarrard said. “We made some adjustment at halftime and we executed much better.”
Four Griffins reached double figures in points with
Nicole Yazzie and
Jenteal Jackson scoring 12 apiece. Jackson had five assists and three triples.
Tia Pappas came up with 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench with
Shelby Ellsworth contributing 10 points.
Cydney Tibbitts filled the stat sheet with eight points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Lindsey Abramson led UGF with 19 points and eight rebounds. Kindra Jones scored 13 with Kezia Ford had 10.
These two teams will now play again on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the Frontier Conference Tournament. Westminster is the No. 1 seed while Great Falls in the No. 8 seed. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. in the Behnken Field House.
