After scoring four points on two field goals in the first half, sophomore guard Vanessa Farias drained seven three-pointers in a row in the second half as Westmont Women’s Basketball (4-0) defeated Bethany (0-5) by a score of 77-43. Farias alone outscored the Bruins in the second half 27-22. Her 31 points in the game is the seventh best in Westmont women’s basketball history.
“It was funny, because in the first half I didn’t make a three-pointer,” noted Farias. “I went over to my assistant coach (Meghan Gnekow) and said, ‘I’m not feeling my shot’. She said, ‘Just keep shooting.’ I did.”
Farias hit her first three-pointer with 14:15 left in the second half to give the Warriors a 50-27 advantage. By the time she hit her seventh with 6:35 remaining, the Warriors were up 75-33.
Asked what she was thinking after making the first couple of long-distance buckets, Farias replied, “I wanted to play smart with the ball and not just force everything. I was trying to make smart decisions on when to shoot.”
No one is questioning her decision making ability.
“This team has some shooters,” said Moore. “On any given night you don’t know who it is going to be, but we have a lot of people with the ability to get hot. Obviously, Vanessa did that tonight. She has been working on her shot a lot – getting reps up and seeing the ball go in the basket. When you see the ball go in the basket it tends to keep going in. She did a great job of playing with confidence and the team did a great job of finding her when she was hot. In a time out, we talked about making sure that the zone shifted away from Vanessa so that she could keep the streak going. The team rallied behind her and it gave us some great energy in the second half.”
The Warriors jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first three minutes after Elizabeth Evancoe (11 points, 4 assists) opened the game with a three-pointer to break the ice. Bethany’s Rachel Walters (14 points, 6 rebounds) hit a three-pointer with 16:37 to play to get the Bruins on the board, before Angel Blanco (10 points, 5 rebounds) restored Westmont’s double-digit lead (13-3) on the next possession. Westmont never led by less than 10 the rest of the game. By halftime, the Warriors had posted a 41-21 advantage.
“Even though we had a lead, we were talking as a team (at halftime) that we should have picked up our defense and not have gotten comfortable with our lead,” reported Farias.
“One of the encouraging things was to come into the locker room and for my team not to be satisfied with the defensive effort that we gave,” said Moore. “We have had great leadership from the captains (Evancoe, Blanco and Katie Kittle) in that regard. They are determined to get a lot better than we were tonight. We have some very good teams coming up on our schedule very quickly. We have Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) coming in here in just over a week and then we open conference with Biola. Obviously we had a good time (tonight) and did some good things out there, but it was encouraging to hear their focus on improving defensively.”
Before taking on Trevecca Nazarene at home on Monday, November 22, the Warriors will make a road trip to Riverside on Thursday, November 18, to face the Golden Eagles of La Sierra.
