Playing in Murchinson Gym for the first time in nearly a month, the Westmont women’s basketball team wanted to make sure to take care of its home court on Saturday night.
Mission accomplished, and then some.
The 20th-ranked Warriors blew visiting San Diego Christian out of the building, putting together a 90-40 shellacking to improve to 10-1 on the season and 2-1 in Golden State Athletic Conference play.
“We haven’t played at home in a month so for us to be back home playing, our girls are really excited about that,” said Warriors head coach Kirsten Moore after the game.
Jessica Case, who had a game-high 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting, backed up her coach.
“It’s so good to be back. We’ve been on the road a lot this year so it was nice to play in front of parents and friends,” said the junior guard.
Since opening up the season with two wins at home in early November, the Warriors have had only one home game since.
Westmont thanked the fans with an all-around dominating performance, shooting 57.4 percent while harassing San Diego Christian to a 27.3 percent clip.
“We were focused and stayed composed,” explained Amber Stevens, a Dos Pueblos grad. “We just had a lot of energy and we wanted to dominate the game.”
Katie Kittle matched Case’s game-high 15 points. Stevens, Alisha Heglund, and Annie Johnson chipped in 10 each as the Warriors enjoyed having five players in double digits.
“We’re playing well and we played exceptionally well tonight,” admitted Moore, who really liked how the Warriors shared the basketball, recording 28 assists on their 35 field goals.
Lindsey Chessum tallied five assists and four other Warriors had four assists each.
The 10-1 Warriors – their only loss a four-point defeat at No. 2 Concordia – are brimming with confidence.
“I thought we played like a team that wants to be great,” continued Moore. “I think great teams when they have a lead, they extend the lead and continue to extend the lead.”
That they did, turning a 23-point halftime lead into a 50-point blowout.
If Saturday night’s performance was any indication, visitors may be in for long trips home from the Montecito campus.
“When we had our team retreat in the beginning of the year and set our goals, one of those goals was to be undefeated at home,” recalled Moore.
“The girls are taking that goal really seriously, they showed that tonight with how they played.”
The Warriors next potential victim is Hope International, scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff at Westmont in Tuesday.
