SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster women's basketball team hung around with Colorado Mesa for 20 minutes before the visitors pulled away for a 77-61 over the Griffins on Saturday night in the Behnken Field House.
 
Westminster (3-3, 1-1 RMAC) trailed just 34-29 at halftime, but Colorado Mesa (5-1, 2-0) shot 60 percent in the second half to pull away for the win. The Griffins shot 36.2 percent for the game and were just 8 of 28 from beyond the arc.
 
Denise Gonzalez led Westminster with a season-high 21 points – one off her career high – as the sophomore connected on 5 of 9 from three. She scored nine of those points during a 1:20 stretch of action that started with a deep three as time expired in the third quarter.
 
The Griffins continued their hot shooting at the foul line by going 11 of 13 and they grabbed 13 offensive rebounds for 14 points. Colorado Mesa outscored the home side 44-16 in the paint and turned 15 Griffin turnovers into 13 points.
 
It was a 3-point game with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter before CMU went on a 22-9 run over the following 8:22 of action to put the game out of reach. They made 9 of 16 shots during the burst and held the Griffins to 3 of 10 with five turnovers.
 
Sydnee Taylor added 12 points and four rebounds for the Griffins. Whitni Syrett led the way with seven rebounds and Riley Reidhead recorded four assists.
 
CMU got 38 points from its bench and was led by 19 points and seven rebounds from Ma'ata Epenisa.
 
Westminster will now spend the rest of the month on the road with five straight road games. They begin the trip on Friday at New Mexico Highlands. All of the road games will be broadcast live on the RMAC Network.