Despite a late 9-0 surge by the Hawks of San Diego Christian, No. 14 Westmont Women’s Basketball held on to secure a 61-58 win in El Cajon on Saturday night. With the win, Westmont improves to 10-1 on the season. The Warriors are now 3-0 in the Golden State Athletic Conference and share first place with Azusa Pacific.
Westmont's Amber Stevens hit the 1,000-point milestone on Saturday.
Senior Amber Stevens recorded nine points which gave her a 1,004 career points. Her two steals in the game also reached a milestone of 300 career steals – a record for Westmont Women’s Basketball. The point guard also recorded seven rebounds and five assists.
The Warriors had good starts in both halves, but had trouble keeping the Hawks from coming back. In the first half, Westmont posted a 16-8 lead with 10:29 left before San Diego Christian posted a 8-1 run to pull within one point (17-16).
A layup by Stevens restored a three-point cushion (19-16) for the Warriors but the Hawks scored the next eight points to move ahead 24-19 with 2:39 remaining on the first half clock. By the end of the period, Westmont had reduced San Diego Christian’s margin to two (29-27).
“We came out strong in the beginning but had a rough first half taking care of the ball,” acknowledged Westmont Head Coach Kirsten Moore. “We did better in the second half, went on a nice run and got the momentum back in the game. But we didn’t close it out. SDCC played great. They got big shots and we couldn’t get stops.
After the Hawk’s Thalia Benjamin scored on a layup to start the second half, Jessica Case got the Warriors started with a bucket from three-point range. Westmont then recaptured the lead with a jumper by Alisha Heglund. Angel Blanco and Case added to the Warrior lead with layups and Westmont found itself up by five (36-31) just three minutes and 45 seconds into the second period.
Case gave the Warriors a double-digit lead (46-34) with 12:10 remaining by hitting another of her three three-pointers. Another jumper by Heglund stretched Westmont’s advantage to 14 (48-34) with 11:44 to play in regulation.
But the Hawks were not finished. With 4:54 remaining, Benjamin’s jumper reduced the Warriors lead to single digits (54-46). Stevens made the score 56-46, but it proved to be Westmont’s last field goal of the night.
The Hawks, on the other hand, got baskets from Torreya Edwards, Kelly Johnson and Alexandra Dill before Edwards nailed a three-pointer to pull the Hawks to within one point (56-55) with 56 seconds to play.
After a time out by San Diego Christian, Amber Stevens was fouled and made one of two free throws to break the Hawks’ 9-0 run. Though Stevens missed the second attempt, the Warriors got the rebound, forcing Dill to foul Case. Case stepped to the line and made both of her free throw attempts. With a four-point advantage (59-55) and 20 seconds remaining, things were starting to look up for the Warriors.
After another Hawks time out, Edwards launched a three-point attempt. She missed, but an offensive rebound gave her another attempt. This time, the ball traveled from outside the arc through the net making it a one-point game (59-58) with six seconds left.
Westmont in-bounded the ball and once more the Hawks were forced to foul, this time sending Blanco to the charity stripe with one second remaining. Blanco sank both her attempts, giving the Warriors the 61-58 victory.
“Our team never lost confidence,” said Moore. “We had to fight through it. For Amber, Jess and Angel to make those free throws after we had lost momentum was huge. I’m hoping that this experience will motivate us to keep getting better – especially our defense and rebounding.”
The Warriors were out-rebounded 43-31 with 11 of the Hawks rebounds coming compliments of Edwards. She also led San Diego Christian in scoring with 22 points.
Case produced 15 points to lead the Warriors while Heglund added 14 points and four boards. Blanco tallied 13 points and six rebounds.
“Angel had a great game for us,” said Moore. “Unfortunately, she took a charge and was hit in solar plexus early in the second half. She had the wind knocked out of her and had to taken out of the game temporarily. It took awhile for her to get her momentum back.”
Stevens has a career field goal percentage of 49.6, having made 400 of 806 attempts, which is second best in the Warrior record books. She is also second in career assists (501) and is first in assists per game at 5.0.
The Warriors will continue Golden State Athletic Conference play on Tuesday when they travel to Riverside to take on California Baptist.
