Senior forward Angel Blanco made six of eight attempts from the field on her way to 15 points as Westmont Women’s Basketball fell to Oregon 93-68 in an exhibition game on Sunday.
“Angel had a great game and accomplished all that in only 20 minutes,” said Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. “She was getting beat up out there; a couple of times she got hit pretty hard. Despite that, she wanted to keep playing. But we have a game tomorrow that counts, so we didn’t play her as much as we probably would have otherwise. She was extremely productive in the minutes she played.”
Westmont held their own against the Ducks during the first half of play, trailing by just eight points (41-33) going into halftime. However, Oregon came out of the locker room and quickly took control of the game with a 22-5 run in the first five minutes. The Warriors played the Ducks even (30-30) for the remaining 15 minutes of the second half.
“I was really proud of the way our Warriors played today,” said Moore. “It was a very different style of play. Oregon presses and runs and shoots within the first few seconds of the shot clock; taking the first available shot. They wanted to create an up-tempo game. In an exhibition game [against Willamette] on Wednesday, they scored 121 points. I thought we had a good game plan and our team really rose to the occasion in our defense. It may not look like it giving up 93 points, but we did a good job of taking them out of the tempo that they wanted to play.”
Oregon is coached by Paul Westhead, former coach for three NBA teams – Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Denver Nuggets). Westhead is known for his run-and-gun offensive style that he successfully employed as the head men’s basketball coach at Loyola Marymount.
Junior post player Lisa Peterson tallied 10 points on four-of-seven shooting and had six rebounds for the Warriors. Junior guard Katie Kittle put up nine points and pulled down seven boards while senior forward Elizabeth Evancoe and sophomore guard Vanessa Farias each contributed another eight points to the Warrior cause.
“Lisa Peterson really battled inside,” reported Moore. “She was able to give us a presence inside and opened with the first couple of buckets of the game for us, which was huge in giving us momentum as we broke their press. Erin Beadle gave us a spark off the bench in the first half. She had five steals in the first half and ended with five steals, six assists and only one turnover against a team that forced 55 turnovers only four nights ago.
“Oregon pressed the majority of the game,” continued Moore. “A few times they ran a half-court zone trap. But other than that they pressed and tried to keep an up-tempo game and force us into turnovers. In the first half we were even in turnovers, which is an incredible job. It was a really positive game for us. We are going to take a lot from this game into this season.”
Among those cheering for the Warriors was former Oregon resident and current president of Westmont College, Dr. Gayle Beebe.
“After the game, Dr. Beebe was very complementary of our team and the way in which they played,” reported Moore. “He was very proud of them.”
Also proud of the team was their head coach who, as an alumna of Oregon, was taking a team back to her alma mater for the first time in her coaching career.
“The team represented well what we are about at Westmont,” said Moore. “I received a number of comments about how hard we played, how well we played and the spirit with which we played. It was special to be able to bring a team back to represent not only me but our college and our God in great way.”
The Warriors will play Monday at Concordia (Ore.) before returning home. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
