SALT LAKE CITY – The No. 4 Westminster women's basketball team took control in the second half and pulled away from Montana Tech for a 60-44 win on Thursday night in the Behnken Field House.
 
Westminster (15-2, 5-1 Frontier) trailed for most of the first half as they started the game making just two of their first nine shots and quickly found themselves trailing by seven. Shelby Ellsworth and Amy Krommenhoek sparked a 16-5 run late in the half that turned things around and gave the Griffins the 26-21 edge heading into halftime.
 
Montana Tech (8-13, 0-6) came out of the break with the first 10 points and they opened up their largest lead of the game at 36-28 with a 15-2 run over the first 5:10 of the period. The Griffins responded with 14 straight points – nine from Krommenhoek and five by Alli Winters – to retake the lead for good. Westminster held the visitors to just eight points over the final 10:05 of the game and forced them into 3-of-15 shooting down the stretch.
 
"It took us too long to change our defensive mindset tonight," Westminster head coach Shelley Jarrard said after the game. "We took away their primary options, but their other shooters made shots."
 
Krommenhoek finished the game with 19 points – one shy of her season-high – on 7-of-14 shooting. The made three of her seven attempts from beyond the arc while recording five assists, three rebounds and one steal.
 
"I couldn't take Amy (Krommenhoek) off the floor tonight, she was great," Jarrard said of her senior guard.
 
Westminster finished the game shooting 41.1 percent from the floor and they had five makes from beyond the arc. They scored 24 points in the paint and got 17 points from 13 Montana Tech turnovers. The Griffins limited Tech to 30.2 percent shooting and had a 41-30 edge on the boards.
 
Ellsworth was the only other Griffin in double figures as she finished with 14 points. Tia Pappas added eight points and 11 rebounds and Winters finished with five points and three assists.
 
Montana Tech got 12 points from Shayla Mack of 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. Kayla DeWitt added 10 points off the bench. As a team, Montana Tech finished the game 10-of-27 (37 percent) from three.
 
The Griffins will now take a day off before facing No. 18 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) in the Behnken Field House on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. MT. Tickets for that game are available at WestminserGriffins.com/tickets.