CHADRON, Neb. –  On a night they led for nearly 30 minutes of action, it was a second half scoring drought the led to the Westminster men's basketball team losing at Chadron State College,  69-62, in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
 
Westminster (8-8, 4-8 RMAC) got off to a 17-6 advantage 12 minutes into play by holding Chadron State (6-10, 4-8) to just 3 of 20 shooting. The home team would close the half with a 17-8 run to trail the Griffins 25-23 at halftime.
 
After Chadron State took the 36-35 lead with 15:03 to play, Westminster got the lead back to six with a 10-3 spurt that featured five points apiece from Zerrion Payton and Kenny Woodard. That was answered with an 18-8 spurt from the Eagles to take the lead back for good. They held Westminster to 3 of 9 shooting and two turnovers during the crucial 7-minute span.
 
The Griffins finished the game shooting 40.3 percent from the field with 15 assists and just 10 turnovers. They held Chadron State to 33.3 percent shooting, but the Eagles went 25 of 34 at the foul line to just 7 of 10 from the Griffins.
 
Zerrion Payton led Westminster with 15 points. He also collected six rebounds, three assists, and two steals in the loss. Quincy Bair added 11 points and four rebounds with Brandon Warr going for 10 points and seven boards.
 
Chadron State made just 4 of 22 from beyond the arc and they had 11 turnovers which resulted in 14 Westminster points.
 
Sharif Black finished with a game-high 22 points behind 8 of 10 at the foul line. Davante McCallam added 17 points.
 
Westminster is back in action on Saturday when they play at Regis University in Denver at 7 p.m. MT. The game will be available on Griffins TV at portal.stretchinternet.com/Westminster.