SALT LAKE CITY—The Westminster men's basketball team wrapped up its season with a senior night win over Western Colorado.
The Griffins (9-10, 9-10 RMAC) are seventh in the traditional RMAC standings but ninth in the RPI standings (10.63), just missing the RMAC tournament. The conference decided to use an RPI standing due to COVID-19 and the affect it had on the number of games played by each team.
Jaxon Barlow and
Dominic Cervantez played their final regular season home game for the Griffins. Carlsen, Martín and McGinley were honored before the game.
Westminster scored the opening basket and led for most the game, surrendering the lead once in the first half and twice in the second half for a combined one minute 32 seconds. The Mountaineers (6-12, 6-11) shot 60.0% and the Griffins shot 60.9% from the field. Westminster took 14 more attempts and made nine more baskets for an edge over Western.
The Griffins took advantage of Westerns 20 turnovers, scoring 28 points off turnovers. Westminster scored 20 more points in the paint (48) than Western and the bench was more productive scoring 36 points to the Mountaineer's eight.
Westminster scored the opening seven points of the game and took a 10-point lead, 11-1, within the opening four minutes.
Brayden Johnson scored the game's opening basket, assisted the next and grabbed an offensive rebound in the opening run.
Midway through the half, Western made four threes in a row in a 12-4 run to take the lead, 24-25, for one possession.
Brandon Willardson scored to put Westminster back in front and a Mountaineer turnover allowed Westminster to stretch the lead to four.
The Mountaineers chipped away at Westminster's first-half lead and took their second lead of the game six minutes into the half. The teams traded a few baskets with the lead changing with each score until
Joey Andrews and
Matt Kitzman scored consecutively to give the Griffins a five-point lead, 61-56.
A 12-0 run with seven minutes left secured Westminster's win as the Griffins stretched their lead to 14.
Five Griffins scoured in double-figures.
Reme Torbert and Andrews led the Griffins with 17 points. Torbert (5-7) and Andrews (3-5) combined for eight of the Griffins 11 three-pointers. Kitzman scored 13 and Willardson and
Taylor Miller both had 10. Matthew Ragsdale led all scorers with 25 points and Avery Rembau scored 21 for the Mountaineers.
Andrews and Torbert led the team with five rebounds each and Kitzman and Willardson each had four assists to lead the Griffins. Western's Elijah Davidson grabbed eight rebounds to lead all players.
RMAC Men's Basketball RPI Final Standings
| Colorado Mesa |
16.32 |
1 |
| Colorado School of Mines |
16.13 |
2 |
| Black Hills State |
12.13 |
3 |
| MSU Denver |
12.07 |
4 |
| Adams State |
11.76 |
5 |
| Fort Lewis |
11.00 |
6 |
| South Dakota Mines |
10.83 |
7* |
| Chadron State |
10.83 |
8* |
| Westminster |
10.63 |
|
| UCCS |
10.56 |
|
| Regis |
10.50 |
|
| Western Colorado |
9.94 |
|
| Colorado Christian |
8.22 |
|
| CSU Pueblo |
7.33 |
|
*South Dakota Mines wins tiebreaker
