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SALT LAKE CITY - The Westminster College women's basketball team will look for its first-ever trip to the fab Four of the NAIA Division I National Championship on Sat. when they face Wiley (Texas) in a quarterfinal game at 4 p.m. MDT. The No. 1 seed Griffins and the No. 3 seed Lady Wildcats will meet for the first time on Sat. in the Frankfort Convention Center in Frankfort, Ky.

FOLLOW THE ACTION
Thursday's game will be streamed live on the web by the NAIA through the streaming partner, NeuLion. The cost to view the game is $9.95 per day or $24.95 for the entre tournament. Live stats will also be available during the tournament.

VIEWING PARTY
The game will NOT be shown in the Shaw Student Center.

GRIFFIN NOTES
Westminster enters the quarterfinals at 65-2 overall this season and riding a 19-game winning streak. That is the longest winning streak in school history. The Griffins went 16-0 during Frontier Conference play and they won the regular season and tournament titles for a second-straight season.

The Griffins are averaging 69.75 points per game this season and they lead the Frontier Conference by shooting 46.4 percent from the field. They lead the NAIA in 3-point shooting by connecting on 39.7 percent from beyond the arc while making an average of 7.39 threes per game to place 12th in the NAIA. Westminster distributes 15.8 assists per game and they rank second in the country with a 1.35 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The Griffins have been stellar at the defensive end all season as they hold the opposition to 53.50 points per game. They place second in the country in scoring defense which helps them rank 10th in scoring margin at 16.3 points per game.  Westminster leads the country by allowing the opposition just 29.3 rebounds per game and they force 16 turnovers per contest.

Alli Blake is the team's top scorer at 15.3 points per game and she is fourth in the NAIA by shooting 55.3 percent. Blake also leads the squad with 120 assists and her 4.29 assists per game average ranks 24th in the country. Tia Pappas averages 11.7 points and ranks 22nd in the NAIA at 2.39 steals per game. Shelby Ellsworth is scoring 10.6 points while leading the team by grabbing 5.9 rebounds per contest.

ABOUT WILEY
Wiley is the No. 3 seed in the Griffins quadrant and they enter Saturday's game at 29-4 on the season. They defeated Mobile (Ala.), 74-72, in the first round before knocking out Shawnee State (Ohio), 81-70, in the second round on Fri. The Lady Wildcats have won 12 of their last 14 games played. Danisha Shaw averages 20.13 points per game to lead the team while Kirbi Clark is tops on the squad at 8.0 rebounds per outing.

Sat. will mark the first-ever meeting between the Griffins and Lady Wildcats.

GRIFFINS AT NAIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
This is the eighth-straight trip to the NAIA National Champions for the Griffins dating back to their first trip in 2007. They have compiled a 10-7 record in those seven previous trips with two trips. They are making a second-straight appearance in the quarterfinals and their trip quarterfinal appearance all-time. Westminster is winless in its previous two trips to the quarterfinals.

SECOND ROUND RECAP
Westminster advanced to its third national quarterfinals appearance in four seasons with a 65-56 win over four-seed Mid-America Nazarene in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Championships on Friday.

Westminster opened the game with a 7-0 lead, but MidAmerica Nazarene jumped right back into it, scoring nine-straight to take the lead on a 3 by Megan Balcom.  The two were knotted at 13 before Alli Winters hit a 3 to spark a 10-0 and give Westminster its first double-digit lead, 23-13, with 2:38 left in the opening half.

Mid-America Nazarene scored eight of the next 10 points of the game, including a first-half buzzer-beater by Brooke Rinehart to cut Westminster's lead to four, 25-21, at halftime.

The MNU Pioneers kept the Griffins close in the opening minutes of the second half, cutting the difference to two points, 27-25, on a basket by Daria Sprew. Westminster used another run, 13-3, to pull back ahead by double-digits and never let up, despite MNU pulling back to within nine points three times.

Four of Westminster's starters scored in double figures, led by Tia Pappas' 17 points. Alli Blake had 13, and Shelby Ellsworth and Kelsi Wells each scored 12. Ellsworth and Pappas had nine and eight rebounds, respectively.

LOOKING BACK AT THE FIRST ROUND
Westminster became the third No. 1 seed to punch its ticket to the second round with a 66-50 win over William Woods (Mo.) in the first round of the 2014 NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship. The Griffins extend their win streak to 18 games this season and will meet No. 4 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) on Friday.

Frontier Conference Player of the Year Alli Blake and Defensive Player of the Year Tia Pappas paced Westminster with 19 points each, while Shelby Ellsworth cleaned up 11 rebounds.

Westminster closed the half on a 19-5 run to lead at the break, 38-29. The Griffins held William Woods to 9.09 percent shooting (1-for-11) from the floor in the final 10 minutes of the half, including an eight-minute drought from the floor by the Owls. WWU was 3-for-6 from the foul line during the same stretch.

SIX STRAIGHT TITLES
With a perfect 16-0 conference season, Westminster won its sixth-straight regular season Frontier Conference championship. Going back to the start of the 2008-09 season, Westminster has dominated the Frontier Conference to the tune of an 82-5 (.943) mark and they have only dropped more than one league game in a season one time. This was the second time the Griffins had gone undefeated in league games, matching the 14-0 mark during the 2008-09 campaign.

BOMBS AWAY
Westminster is one of the premier 3-point shooting team in the NAIA. The Griffins rank 12th in the country by making 7.44 triples per contest and they lead the country by shooting 39.8 percent from beyond the arc. They have recorded at least five threes in all but four games this season with a season-high 12 on three separate occasions.

Westminster has the two of the top long range shooters in the NAIA in Alli Winters and Amy Krommenhoek. Winters makes 53.5 percent from beyond the arc to lead the nation with Krommenhoek connecting on 45 percent of her attempts to place seventh. Winters averages 2.26 threes per game – including five on Thurs. – with Krommenhoek making 2.15 per game.

ON THE DEFENSIVE
Westminster is one of the top defensive teams in the NAIA and they place second in the nation by holding the opposition to 53.41 points per game. The Griffins have kept the opposition under 60 points on 20 occasions this season and 11 times held them under 50 points. During their current 18-game winning streak, Westminster is giving up just 49.7 points per game with only two teams reaching the 60-point plateau. The Griffins also take advantage of their defense by scoring 18.4 points off turnovers per game.

THE BLAKE SHOW
Senior Alli Blake was named the Frontier Conference Player of the Year, becoming the fifth player in school history to win the award. She is averaging 15.37 points per game this season with 21 games in double figures and seven 20-point games. She ranks fourth in the conference in scoring while leading the league and placing fourth in the country by shooting 55.8 percent from the floor.

Blake also leads the team with 118 assists and she is 24th in the NAIA by handing out 4.37 assists per game. She collects 5.33 rebounds per night and shoots 80.6 percent from the foul line – 25th in the NAIA. Blake gives the Griffins repeat player of the year honors after Nicole Yazzie won in 2013 and they have now had the league's top player four times since 2009.

PAPPAS TAKES DEFENSIVE HONOR
Tia Pappas was honored as the Frontier's Defensive Player of the Year. The 5-foot-7 junior from Price, Utah, is second in the conference in steals at 2.37 per game which also ranks 22nd in the NAIA. Her 64 total steals ranks seventh in school history for a single season and are 35th in the NAIA this season. She joins McKenzie Jessop (2010) and Cydney Tibbitts (2013) as the only Griffins to win the award.

KROMMENHOEK NAMED TOP RESERVE
Amy Krommenhoek was selected as the Frontier Sixth-Player of the Year, joining Pappas (2013) as the only Griffins to win the award. The 5-foot-7 junior from American Fork, Utah, has played in all 27 games off the bench this season and is averaging 9.3 points per game. She is seventh in the NAIA by shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc and she is 37th in the nation by averaging 2.15 treys per game. Krommenhoek has scored in double figures 10 times this season and twice reach the 20-point mark.

LOOKING AHEAD
The winner of Saturday's quarterfinal game between Westminster and Wiley will advance to the Fab Four and a game on Mon. at 6 p.m. MDT. They will face the winner between Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) and Bethel (Tenn.)