PROVO, Utah - Westminster men's basketball (5-6, 3-2 RMAC) connected on a season-high ten three-pointers as a team but couldn't keep pace with a BYU (12-3, 0-0 WCC) team that made 14 three's to win, 65-53, on Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.
Westminster trailed the Cougars by just five at the half as BYU came out with just 11-of-30 shooting overall as a team in the opening twenty minutes. The Cougars led by as many as 11 in the first half but the Griffins knocked down four three's and held BYU scoreless over the final 3:26 to head into the break down five at 29-24.
The Cougars pushed their lead back up to double digits less than five minutes into the second half and pushed it to twenty on a string of three's heading into the final five minutes of the second. BYU followed up a 7-of-16 3PT FG shooting first half with a 7-of-15 3PT FG second half.
Ryan Bell helped close the gap late with an offensive outburst in the closing minutes to finish with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting overall and 3-of-3 from deep.
Lewis Johnson led the Griffins with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field while
Brayden Johnson pulled in four offensive boards and finished with a team-high eight rebounds on the night. Westminster began the night averaging just over five made three's per game, but knocked down six in the second half alone to finish 10-of-30 from three as a team.
The Griffins will now prepare to travel to Las Vegas, N.M., where they will take on N.M. Highlands on Friday evening at 5 p.m. Westminster will then head to Colorado Springs for a New Year's Day contest at UC-Colorado Springs on Saturday beginning at 7:30 p.m.
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