Amber Stevens scored 17 of her career-high 28 points in the second half Thursday night as Westmont College rallied for a 70-56 women’s basketball victory over Concordia at Murchison Gym.
Stevens, a junior guard from Dos Pueblos High, hit 9-of-15 from the floor and 10-13 from the charity stripe to eclipse her previous high by seven. She also had a game-high 12 rebounds and three steals for the NAIA’s 15th-ranked Warriors, who won their third straight to improve to 17-3 overall and 9-3 in the GSAC. Westmont solidified its hold on third place in the conference with a two-game lead over Azusa Pacific and Biola.
Stevens is the second-best field-goal shooter in the GSAC at 56.1 percent.
“Amber really led us on the offensive end, with great effort getting to the rim,” said coach Kirsten Moore, whose team is 8-1 at home. “We realized they weren’t doing a good job of stopping our penetration, so we got Amber going to the hoop and Jess (Case) going to the hoop in the second half.”
The Warriors hit 19-of-26 free throws in the second stanza, compared to 6-8 for the visitors from Irvine.
After falling behind 26-17 with six minutes left in the first half, Westmont went on a 13-0 run to assume a 30-26 lead. Stevens started the burst with a layup and ended it with a three-point play.
The Warriors forced 11 first-half turnovers and led 30-28 at the break.
Ali Mooty had 11 points and five rebounds for Westmont, which broke open a 42-40 game with a 9-0 run ignited by a 3-pointer by Lindsey Chessum at the 9:55 mark.
“A lot of shots weren’t falling in the first half but we had good defense and that’s what we’ve always been able to rely on,” said Moore, whose club is No. 1 in GSAC defense, allowing just 54.4 per game. “We did a good job of pressuring the ball and getting a lot of deflections. We wanted to keep our defense consistent in the second half when we knew our shots would start falling.”
The loss avenges one of three losses for Westmont but it took more than two months. On Dec. 4, the Eagles handed the Warriors their first loss, 64-60, after a 7-0 start.
Westmont travels to last-place Hope International (1-19, 0-12) on Saturday.
