By Kaci Mexico

February 9, 2017

(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Aysia Shellmire and Lauren McCoy each had a double-double to lead #3 Westmont Women's Basketball (20-3, 10-2 GSAC)  to a 63-55 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over Arizona Christian (12-10, 6-5 GSAC) – Shellmire led all scorers and rebounders with 21 points and 12 rebounds respectively and McCoy had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Additionally, Aimee Brakken scored in the double-digits with 12 points.

Head coach Kirsten Moore shared her initial thoughts about tonight's result.

"The phrase that keeps repeating in my head about tonight's game is, 'It wasn't pretty, but it was really gritty'", said Moore. "It took a lot of grit tonight – our women are really tired from Tuesday's game and I think you could see it in the way that we played out there. Arizona Christian fights hard and has a lot of dangerous scorers, but we made enough plays to get it done tonight."

"Our rebounding was great tonight," continued Moore. "We had 21 offensive boards to their three and we out-rebounded them overall by 21 so I think that was the big difference in the game. We also had seniors really step up tonight – Aysia to open the game with seven straight points, Cora [Chan] at the end of the first half scoring six points in 17 seconds, and then down the stretch [Aimee] Brakken hit a couple of key three's."

"It is great to see the seniors stepping up and showing what they want out of this season," finished Moore.

The Warriors took control of momentum in the first quarter with a 10-2 run to take an early nine point lead (17-8) - McCoy made four free throws, Kayla Sato put up a jump shot, and Shellmire made two free throws and a layup. The Firestorm answered back with an 8-0 run to finish out the quarter and come within one point (17-16).

The Firestorm kept this momentum going and put up five points to take a four point lead at the start of the second quarter. However, Westmont answered with a 9-0 run to regain the lead (26-21). With 33 seconds left in the half, the two teams were tied and in the final 17 seconds Chan hit back-to-back three-pointers to end the half with the Warriors up 32-26.

Throughout the third quarter, the Warriors increased their lead to 12, but the Firestorm closed out the quarter with an 8-0 run to come within four points going into the fourth quarter (46-42). At the start of the fourth quarter, Westmont went on a critical 8-0 run to earn a more secure 12 point lead (57-45) – McCoy put up a layup and Brakken hit back-to-back three-pointers. The Firestorm fought to bridge the gap, but the Warriors held them off until the final buzzer.

Up next, Westmont will travel to San Marcos on Saturday to play St. Katherine in a non-conference game at 4:00 p.m.; then next week, the Warriors will resume conference play with a home game against Menlo on Thursday February 16 at 5:30 p.m.

"It is crunch time now", explained Moore. "Every game matters and every team is going to bring their best- every game is going to be a battle. Moving forward, we need to make sure we do everything we can in our control to put us into a good position for the post season."