Despite battling foul trouble, Westmont junior post player Alisha Heglund made all seven of her field goal attempts to lead the Warriors with 14 points in the team’s 58-47 win over #8 Carroll of Montana (3-3).
Carroll opened up with a full court press, but after Westmont broke the press on the first two possessions and Heglund scored on two layups, the Fighting Saints took the press off. Heglund scored again giving Westmont a 6-0 lead to start the game. However, Heglund found herself in foul trouble and would remain on the court for only 15 of the game’s 40 minutes.
Heglund was not the only Warrior fighting foul trouble, however. With two minutes remaining in the first half, Westmont found itself on the wrong end of a 13-2 foul tally. Sophomore forward Angel Blanco sat on the bench with three fouls and junior guard Jessica Case joined her with two. But despite the difference in fouls called, the Warriors entered the locker room with a 26-25 lead.
“We faced a lot of adversity in the first half,” said Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. “But at halftime we felt if we could get any kind of momentum, we would be okay. Most of their scoring came from the free throw line and as the result of offensive rebounds.”
Defensively, the Warriors held Carroll’s three starting guards to just three of 18 field goal attempts and one assist while forcing the trio into 11 turnovers.
“Our team was relentless at battling the adversity of our emotions over what had happened at home and the adversity on the court,” said Moore, referring to the fires on the Westmont campus on Thursday. “They fought after loose balls, pulled down ten offensive boards and out-rebounded a much taller team 30-28. We held Carroll to 33% from the field and allowed only 22 points in the second half.”
The Warriors built a 15-point lead with nine minutes left in the second half but the Fighting Saints cut the lead to seven on a three point basket.
“Annie Johnson ended Carroll’s run when she hit a NBA three-pointer,” said Moore. “We brought the ball down the court, passed once to Annie and she regained the momentum for us with nothing but net.
“Lindsey Chessum played incredibly,” continued Moore. “She scored 11 points, had six rebounds and three steals.”
The Warrior drew inspiration for their perseverance from the Biblical passage of II Corinthians 4:7-8.
“It speaks of the treasure we have in jars of clay,” said Moore. “It says, ‘we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed’. ‘But God’ became our rallying cry. In the locker room at half time, we were talking about what Carroll would do when Alisha said, ‘But God’ and reminded us that we were not relying on our own strength. We were tired, emotionally drained, distracted, had legs that burned, weren’t getting calls and were playing in front of 2,000 of our opponent’s fans. But we relied on God’s power in us despite the adversity.”
