SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season to the hands of UC Colorado Springs, 81-68, in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action in the Behnken Field House on Saturday night.
Westminster falls to 6-1 overall this season and 2-1 in conference play. They come up short in a chance to start 7-0 for only the third time in team history.
The Griffins never led in the game as UCCS (5-5, 2-1 RMAC) had an answer for every run.
Zerrion Payton capped a 12-4 Griffins run with a dunk at the 8:30 mark of the second half that evened the game at 20-20. That would be the final tie of the night as UCCS scored the next seven points to start an 18-5 run in the following 4:34.
The Mountain Lions pushed the lead to 18 with just over 17 minutes to play when Kenall Goldey finished a 12-2 spurt with a jumper. The Griffins then found some rhythm with 17 of the game's next 23 points. The run ended with a
Kenny Woodard three from the left corner and saw Westminster trailing just 61-54 with 10>15 to play.
It was an eight-point lead after
Quincy Bair scored with 6:29 remaining. That would be as close as it got as the Griffins went the following 4:14 without scoring and were quickly behind 77-60 with 2:37 to play.
The Griffins finished the gams hooting 47.5 percent from the field, but were only 5 of 14 (35.7 percent) from three. They allowed UCCS to shoot 53.6 percent and the Mountain Lions made 10 threes on 22 attempts. UCCS had a 35-27 edge on the boards and scored 16 points from 13 Westminster turnovers. The Griffins assisted on 21 of their 29 made baskets and forced 16 turnovers.
Payton led three Griffins in double figures with 16 points. He made both of his 3-point attempts and had five assists and three rebounds.
Casey Evans had 14 points and three steals. Bair added 13 points off the bench to help the 31-4 edge in bench scoring.
Alex Welsh led UCCS with 25 points on 10 of 16 shooting. Dalton Patten scored 19 points and Godley and TreShawn Wilford had 14 and 11 respectively.
Westminster will return to action on Friday when they play at Colorado Christian in the team's first conference road game of the season.
