Senior forward Keslie Sampson tallied 34 points and 13 rebounds as No. 11 Westmont women’s basketball team defeated Concordia 84-77 in Tuesday night’s Golden State Athletic Conference game. Sampson’s posted her third game of 30 points or more by making 12 of 26 from the field and 10 of 11 from the free throw line.
Celina Gougis recorded her first double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The junior guard went five for 11 from the field and a perfect seven of seven from the charity stripe. As a team, Westmont made 23 of its 28 free throw attempts.
The Warriors (14-6, 5-2 GSAC) jumped out to a 9-0 lead on a three-pointer by Esther Lee (12 points), a layup by Sampson, a jumper by Lauren Sende (8 points, 5 rebounds) and a layup by Gougis. The Warriors pressed their advantage until they took their largest lead of the game (35-19) on a layup by Sampson with six minutes remaining in the half. By halftime, however, the Eagles had cut the Warrior lead to 10 points (43-33).
After the intermission, the Eagles (9-9, 2-5) continued to whittle away at the deficit. With 14:32 remaining on the game clock, Concordia pulled to within one 47-46 on a layup by Jade Reed (12 points, 4 rebounds). However, Cora Chan scored on a layup to spark a 9-2 Warrior run that was capped by a three-pointer from Gougis. The Eagles got no closer than five points the rest of the game.
Concordia was led in scoring by Ashley Engeln who scored 18 points and pulled down six rebounds.
