SALT LAKE CITY – The third-ranked Westminster women's basketball team used 20 points from Alli Winters to sweep the season series with No. 22 Great Falls (Mont.) by taking a 67-57 win on Thursday night in the Behnken Field House.
 
Westminster records its eighth-straight 20-win season as they move to 20-2 on the year. They are 10-1 in Frontier Conference play and have clinched a bye into the semifinals of the conference tournament where they will host a game on March 6.
 
It was also a milestone night for Tia Pappas as the senior surpassed 1,000 career points with a layup in the first half. She becomes the eighth Griffin in school history to reach the plateau and she does it on a night that she finishes with 14 points.
 
"They have a lot of threats that can cause problems," Westminster Head Coach Shelley Jarrard said of Great Falls. "The game was physical and we had to be on our game."
 
The Griffins led by five just over six minutes into the first half when they put together a 12-3 spurt in the next 3:51 of action. Katie Richens scored five points during the run and the team was 4-of-5 shooting to open a 25-11 advantage with 10:02 to play in the half.
 
After Great Falls (20-7, 7-5 Frontier) cut the deficit to 32-24 six minutes later, Winters scored eight points in 1:28 to spark the Griffins to a 40-2 lead at halftime. She hit a pair of threes during the burst to finish the half with 13 points and three triples.
 
Great Falls would chip away at the Westminster lead for most of the second half and after Erin Legel nailed a three with 8:41 play the lead was down to 51-44. The Griffins responded with 13 of the game's next 15 points, including five from Pappas, to push the edge back to 18 with 4:23 remaining to seal the win.
 
"Tia (Pappas) sat most of the second half with foul trouble, but when she came back it gave us the spark we needed," Jarrard said of her senior.
 
The 20 points from Winters are one shy of her career high and it's the fourth 20-point game of her career. She was 7-of-13 from the field and made three of her six attempts from beyond the arc. The senior also recorded four assists and one steal.
 
Pappas added four rebounds – two offensive – to her 14-point night. She was 5-of-9 from the field with one assist and two steals. Shelby Ellsworth added nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and a career-high six steals. Amy Krommenhoek had four assists and Amanda Hacking grabbed nine rebounds.
 
Westminster finished the game shooting 37.5 percent from the field and the 3-point line. They had a 28-18 edge in points in the paint while scoring 22 points from 22 UGF turnovers.  The Argonauts finished with a 44-37 edge on the glass after also shooting 37.5 percent from the field.
 
Legel – the Frontier's leading scorer – finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and seven turnovers. Stephanie McDonagh added 11 points and Abramson had 10.
 
The Griffins are back in action on Saturday when they welcome No. 11 Montana State-Northern to the Behnken Field House on Senior Night. The action between the top two teams in the Frontier Conference begins at 5:30 p.m. (MT) and a Griffin win secures at least a share of the Frontier regular season title and the No. 1-seed at the conference tournament. Tickets are available for the game at WestminsterGriffins.com/tickets.