Westmont Women’s Basketball (14-5, 10-3 PacWest) recorded its fifth win in a row with a 68-38 victory over the Sharks of Hawai’i Pacific (6-13, 5-8) on Thursday evening at Murchison Gymnasium.
It was a whole -team effort for the Warriors who saw all nine available players score at least four points and everyone record at least one rebound.
“Honestly, it was not the prettiest game out there today,” acknowledged Westmont’s veteran head coach Kirsten Moore. “Hawai’i Pacific is a team that creates a lot of turnovers, so I think we fell susceptible to that for some stretches.
“We have to keep trying to clean that up. Overall, however, a lot of good things from everybody out there.”
Molly Garnand – who was named the PacWest Player of the Week on Monday after scoring 68 points and pulling down 38 rebounds in three games last week – produced another double-double of 14 points and 11 boards.
“Tonight, our depth was highlighted. Our bench is giving us so much and our level of play doesn’t drop when our bench goes in the game. That is such a great thing for us. Everyone was contributing for us.
Noemie Bariteau came off the bench and went three for six from beyond the arc, scored 11 points, collected five rebounds and dished off five assists.
Navine Mallon also subbed in to add nine points to the Warriors’ side of the scoreboard and tally four boards. Skyler Knight produced seven points and snagged two rebounds.
“For the most part, our defense was good again today,” assessed Moore. “We are really getting it done on the boards, so we have to keep that up. That can get us through some ugly stretches offensively.”
The Warriors outrebounded the Sharks 43-20 and posted a 12-1 advantage on the offensive boards. Those second-chance opportunities led to a 16-0 scoring advantage.
Lisa Kiefer contributed nine of the Warriors’ rebounds, while also notching six points, six assists and four steals.
The Warriors jumped out to a 15-3 lead in the first quarter of play. Garnand started the Warrior scoring with a layup, and Kiefer followed suit. Garnand scored again before a free throw by the Sharks’ Kyre Tanabe and a layup by Mya Hatchett made the score 6-3 with 6:23 showing on the clock.
The rest of the scoring in the opening frame would be by Warriors.
A pair of free throws by Garnand preceded layups by Sage Kramer and Kiefer, making the score 12-3. Then Bailey Fong struck from downtown with the Warriors’ first triple of the game, finishing off the first period scoring.
In the second quarter, a layup and two free throws by Mallon stretched the Warrior lead to 16 (19-3) before a layup by Hatchett gave the Sharks their first points in more than nine minutes. Westmont responded with layups by Bariteau and Annie Gibbons to make it a 23-5 game.
Tanabe scored the next five points for Hawai’i Pacific on two free throws and a trey. Kramer stretched the lead back to 17 points with a second-chance bucket after pulling down an offensive board.
However, the Sharks scored the final four points of the first half with a layup by Lucia Ricci and two more free throws by Hatchett. That sent the teams into halftime with Westmont leading 27-14.
The Sharks opened the third quarter by scoring the first five points – courtesy of a triple and a layup by Hatchett – reducing Westmont’s lead to single digits (27-19). A three by Garnand put the Warriors back on the scoreboard before the Sharks’ Mia Frye laid the ball in the hoop to make the score 30-21.
Mariah Brown and Garnand then delivered back-to-back triples and the Warriors were suddenly up by 15 again (36-21). Once more, the Sharks chomped away at the Warrior lead, this time with a fast break layup by Jalen Samuel and a 3-pointer by Ricci.
With the score 36-26, Westmont closed out the third quarter on an 11-2 run in the final two and one-half minutes. Layups by Knight and Kiefer were followed by a jumper by Knight. A steal by Brown led to the point guard scoring on a layup before Bariteau buried a 3-point buzzer beater, making the score 47-28.
In the final frame, Westmont put the pedal to the metal, outscoring Hawai’i Pacific 21-10. Six different Warriors scored in the fourth, led by Bariteau with six points on a pair of triples and Mallon with five points on a three and two.
With nine games remaining in the regular season, Westmont is currently in third place in the PacWest standings. Point Loma (15-4, 11-2) is one game ahead of the Warriors and Azusa Pacific (9-2).
Vanguard (13-4, 9-3) is half a game behind the Warriors in fourth place with Dominican (15-4, 9-4) another half-game back in fifth. Concordia (10-8, 8-5) sits in sixth place, two games behind Westmont. At season’s end, the top six teams will earn berths in the PacWest Championship that will take place March 5-7 at Point Loma.
This Saturday, January 31, the Warriors will host the Vulcans of Hawai’i Hilo in another women’s and men’s doubleheader. The women will tip off at 5:30 p.m. with the men scheduled for 7:30.