Warrior woes continued on Saturday night as the women’s basketball team dropped its third straight home match to the No. 5 Vanguard Lions 88-68 in Murchison Gym. The Warriors have now lost five of their last six games.
Back to back layups to start the game for Bridgette Reyes (29 points, six assists) and Molly Pfohl (eight points, six rebounds), followed by a three pointer by Rachel Copeland (15 points, nine rebounds) put the Warriors in the hole 7-0. The rest of the first half didn’t get any prettier and the Warriors went into half time trailing by 19.
“We struggled getting stops in the first half” said Westmont coach Kirsten Moore.
The second half provided some more excitement as the Warriors picked up their game. The Lions started the second half with a quick layup by Copeland but then the next six minutes was all Westmont.
The Warriors went on a 10-0 run that started with back-to-back jump shots by Elizabeth Evancoe (eight points, four rebounds) and Alisha Heglund (four points, four rebounds). Heglund also had a couple free throws in that span. Amber Stevens (17 points, seven rebounds, six assists) had a couple buckets in the paint and with 16:24 left in the second half, allowing the Warriors to cut the lead to 11.
They weren’t finished though. After Allison Burns (nine points) drained a jumper for Vanguard, Westmont followed up with a 13-3 run powered by consecutive three pointers by Katie Kittle (22 points, eight rebounds, four steals) who finished with a monster game.
“Katie played so intense” noted coach Moore.
Unfortunately for the Warriors the rest of the game was pretty much all Vanguard. The Lions were able to take care of the rest of the game and now move to 11-2 on the season, putting them 7-2 in GSAC. The Warriors fall to 11-6 overall and 4-5 in GSAC.
The Warriors will be without star forward Angel Blanco for the rest of the season as she has left Westmont for the semester for medical reasons. The Warriors expect her to be on the team next year for her senior season. She averages 11.8 points per game and leads the Warriors with 6.9 rebounds per game.
The Warriors next game will be down in Azusa as they take on No. 11 Azusa Pacific (15-4, 8-1) Tip off will be 5:30 P.M on Tuesday.
