SALT LAKE CITY – The 15th-ranked Westminster men's basketball team closed out the Westminster Tipoff Classic with an 86-74 win over Fort Lewis (Colo.) in an exhibition contest in the Behnken Field House on Saturday night.
 
Westminster trailed by less than five minutes into the game, but they responded with a 30-7 run in which they shot 11-of-13 from the field and got 11 points from Jordan Pryor and 10 more by William Walker. They held Fort Lewis to three makes of 12 shots during the 10-minte stretch and forced eight turnovers.
 
Fort Lewis turned things around late in the half with some pressure defense as they forced the Griffins into five turnover to put together a 26-9 run to get within one at 43-42 with 12 seconds to play before halftime. Westminster took some momentum into the break when Isaiah Tademy found Casey Evans for a layup as time expired to give the Griffins a 45-42 edge at intermission.
 
The second half began with a 14-8 push from the home squad to open up a 59-50 advantage at the 14:27 mark. Both teams continued to trade baskets and small runs until Fort Lewis had it within 71-67 with just over seven minutes remaining. The Griffins then closed out the win by scoring 15 of the game's final 22 points, going 11-of-12 at the foul line.
 
Pryor finished the game with 28 points and four rebounds. The junior went 7-of-13 from the field with three treys and made 11 of his 12 free throw attempts. Kenny Woodard score 13 of his 16 points in the first half while adding three assists. William Walker had 14 points on 7-for-7 shooting in 11 minutes off the bench. Nick Jenson had 10 points and Colton Moon recorded five assists. Trevor Bamgartner led the Griffins with seven rebounds.
 
Fort Lewis was led by 28 points from Alex Herrera. He shot 10-of-15 from the floor and made seven of his nine attempts at the foul line with nine rebounds. Rasmus Bach made a pair of threes and scored 12 points.
 
The Griffins will now make a trip to Las Vegas for a pair of games against teams from the Golden State Athletic Conference. They will open on Friday against No. 1 Vanguard (Calif.) at 7 p.m. MT at Liberty High School in the Griffins first-ever game against the nation's No. 1 ranked team.