Alisha Heglund scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds as Westmont women’s basketball improved its record to 2-0 with a 69-31 win over the Keelhaulers of Cal State Maritime. Thirty-one is the fewest points allowed by Westmont since November 21, 1998 when the Warriors defeated San Jose Christian (now William Jessup) 87-30.
“I challenged our team to play defense for 40 minutes tonight,” said Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. “Last night we played great defense in the first half but struggled to keep our intensity going in the second half. I was really pleased with our defensive effort tonight – holding them to a low shooting percentage, forcing a lot of turnovers and ultimately keeping them from scoring much. That was a great step in the right direction for us.
“Alisha set a rebounding goal for herself of reaching double-digits,” continued Moore. “She missed it by one, but played with much better presence and aggressiveness inside. She also did a great job defensively.”
The Warriors did not have a great shooting night, connecting for just 39% from the floor and only 20% from three-point range.
“It was an interesting night for us offensively,” said Moore. “We got a lot of great looks but we just did not shoot the ball very well. But that is when you need to count on your defense and we were able to do that tonight. The interesting thing is that we didn’t shoot well from the floor (26 of 72, 36.1%) or the three-point line 2 of 20, 10.0%), but it was our best game from the free throw line (15 of 18, 83.3%).”
Westmont junior point guard Amber Stevens showed off her All-GSAC form, making five of six from the floor on her way to 12 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals.
“Amber was all over the place tonight,” said Moore. “She played an incredible basketball game on both ends of the court. Amber’s anticipation skills are awesome, making reads for steals from the opposite side of the floor. She had some incredible passes in transition to her teammates. I was most pleased that Amber stepped up with her energy level and the team followed that.”
Also contributing to the Warriors’ scoring were freshman Katie Kittle with ten points and sophomore Elizabeth Evancoe with eight.
“There is no doubt that Katie can score,” said her coach. “She is going to be a great asset for us. Counting our two exhibitions, she has been in double-digits in three of our first four games. Elizabeth had some offensive rebounds and hustle plays that were just exciting.”
The Warriors held a 52-32 rebound advantage in tonight’s game which helped to compensate for the shooting inaccuracy.
“We did a good job crashing the boards;” noted Moore. “I was really pleased with 23 offensive rebounds. For the second game in a row, everyone on the team got at least one rebound.”
On the horizon for the Warriors is the first road trip of the season. Westmont will play in the Mountain West Bank Classic in Helena, Montana next weekend. On Friday, the Warriors will take on Montana Tech and then play Carroll College, the host of the tournament, on the following day. Saturday’s opponent will be a rematch of the first round of last year’s national tournament which Westmont lost by a score of 61-59.
“We have a big week ahead of us,” said Moore. “We have worked all pre-season on our conditioning, knowing that we are going to play two very good teams on the road from a really good conference in Montana. It will be a hostel environment with a lot of fans – a great atmosphere for college basketball.”
