When Westmont College took a 44-19 lead Wednesday night on a jumper by Angel Blanco with 14:37 to play, it looked like the NAIA’s 15th-ranked women’s squad would have clear sailing to the finish.
Someone forgot to tell Fresno Pacific, however, as the visiting Sunbirds reeled off 20 unanswered points to pull within 44-39 with 6:11 remaining. Westmont went 0-for-11 with six turnovers during the scoreless stretch, which lasted exactly 10 minutes.
The Warriors (14-2, 6-2 GSAC) were still clinging to a six-point lead (50-44) with less than three minutes to go when Amber Stevens made back-to-back 3-point plays to restore the margin to a dozen. Westmont went on to post a 64-52 victory for its seventh win in eight games.
“There were a lot of things about this game that we weren’t happy about,” said coach Kirsten Moore. “We came out and established ourselves and that was great. Then we settled into a complacent attitude once we got a large lead.
“That’s a team that’s going to fight and we have to understand that every team is going to do that. We had a heart-to-heart in the meeting room afterward about why that’s happened the last couple of games and what we can do to change it.
“We need to re-commit to our team goals and not settle for being average.”
Jessica Case hit 3-of-6 from downtown and led the Warriors with 18 points. Stevens, a former Dos Pueblos High standout, had 13 points and four assists.
“They’d done a good job scouting our plays and were switching a lot of our screens,” said Moore. “I called a timeout and completely scrapped our offense. We drew something completely up because we wanted to get Amber going to the rim.”
Stevens, a 5-8 junior guard, hit a short floater and converted the foul shot to make it 53-44. Seconds later, she stole a pass above the key and drew a foul while making a breakaway layup. Her second three-point play in 18 seconds pushed the lead back to 56-44.
“We were just trying to make plays down the stretch,” said Stevens. “Our regular set plays weren’t working too well. They had a lot of momentum and we just wanted to break it.”
The Warriors outshot the visitors 52.2 to 33.3 percent while building a 33-17 halftime lead. Case scored 11 points in 15 first-half minutes.
Westmont’s defense is ranked fourth in the NAIA, allowing just 52.8 per game. They’re 11-0 this year when holding teams under 56 points.
Jessica Torrecillas topped the Sunbirds (7-8, 3-5) with 14 points and seven boards.
Westmont, currently third in the GSAC, travels to Costa Mesa on Saturday to take on GSAC leader Vanguard (15-2, 8-0), ranked No. 2 in the NAIA.
