By Ron Smith
March 16, 2018
 
(BILLINGS, Mont.) Westmont guards Lauren Tsuneishi and Maud Ranger combined for eleven 3-point field goals to help fourth-ranked Westmont (24-6) defeated Loyola of Louisiana (26-6) by a score of 77-65 in an NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship semifinal game.
 
The Warriors advance to take on MidAmerica Nazarene of Kansas (27-6) in a quarterfinal game on Saturday. The Pioneers reached the quarterfinals with an 83-67 win over Providence of Montana (20-12) in the game that followed Westmont's.
 
Tsuneishi did not miss a shot for the Warriors, making all seven of her field goal attempts including six from beyond the arc. The point guard tallied 20 points, dished off seven assists and collected three rebounds.
 
"I am so proud of Lauren and how she has been ready to go this year," said Moore. "She has risen to the challenge of stepping in as a freshman and being our point guard, controlling our tempo and knowing all of our plays.
 
"On top of that, she's been able to knock down shots when she needs to. Tonight she did all of the above. She was incredible out there. She played all 40 minutes, other than the last few seconds of the game. She shot with confidence and made Loyola change how they were defending us."
 
Ranger connected on five of 11 from downtown to tally 15 points while contributing three rebounds.
 
"Loyola was trying to pack it in on our posts today," explained Moore. "When Lauren and Maud stepped up with that kind of confidence as our opponent was trying to take our bigs away, we are a tough team to stop offensively. The offense was really balanced tonight. We made great reads and great decisions and took what they gave us. When they took one thing away, we went to our other options."
 
Lauren McCoy tallied 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in the game. McCoy now has 1,485 career points, which is just seven points behind Aysia Shellmire (2013-17) Westmont's career scoring record-holder.
 
At the end of the first quarter of play, the Wolf Pack of Loyola held a 14-10 lead. Just 40 seconds into the second period, Ranger connected for the second of her 3-point buckets to pull Westmont to within one. However, Zoie Miller (11 points), a 5-2 senior point guard, matched Ranger's three with one of her own, making the score 17-13 with 9:22 remaining.
 
Jae Ferrin (8 points, 7 rebounds) scored in the paint after receiving a pass from Tsuneishi to begin a Warrior 7-0 run. With 7:50 to play before intermission, Ranger hit another three giving Westmont an 18-17 lead – a lead the Warriors would not surrender again. Morgan Haskin (9 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists) concluded the run with a jumper in the paint.
 
After a pair of free throws by the Wolf Pack's Di'Mond Jackson (11 points, 5 rebounds), Ferrin scored again in the paint and Tsuneishi hit a three to put the Warriors up 25-19. Jackson cut the lead to four with a jumper before Tsuneishi scored on a layup to make the scoreboard read 27-21 with 4:25 remaining.
 
Before the half ended, Tsuneishi would drop in two more three-point baskets to help the Warriors carry a 33-27 advantage into the locker room.
 
An 11-0 Warrior run in the first four minutes of the third quarter put Westmont in control of the game. Ranger opened the run with back-to-back threes. The next three points came by way of field goals by Joy Krupa (7 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists). McCoy capped the run with a jumper, giving Westmont a 44-27 lead with 5:57 to go in the third. At the end of the quarter, Westmont led 57-39.
 
The Wolf Pack battled in the final frame and managed to cut the differential to nine with under a minute to play, but it proved to be too little, too late.
 
"At the core of everything this team does is our defense," noted Moore. "Loyola has some amazing offensive talent on the court including a first team All-American in Miller. To hold their best players to a low shooting percentage and the team overall was impressive. I'm proud of our defensive presence and intensity. They are quicker than us and more athletic than us, but today, we used our brains."
 
Loyola shot 29.2 percent (21 of 72) from the floor including 31.0 percent (9 of 29) from behind the arc. The Warriors made 47.3 percent of their attempts from the floor 26 of 55) including 55.0% (11 of 20) from 3-point range.
 
"(Assistant coach) Selena (Ho-English) did a good job of scouting for us and helping us know where we needed to be and what we needed to take away," said Moore. "I thought we took away their strengths today. We relied on our defense the way we have all year."
 
This marks the second year in a row the Warriors have reached the quarterfinals of the national championship and the third time in the last four years.
 
"We are excited for the opportunity to keep playing, especially for the seniors (McCoy, Haskin, Ferrin)," said Moore. "They have worked so hard to earn the opportunity they have tomorrow to play for the right to go to the Fab Four. We have to recover and have a lot of work to do on short notice, but our team is very good at preparing on short notice. It's one of the things we train them to do all year. We will be ready to go.
 
The only previous meeting between the two teams was last season when the Warriors and Pioneers met on November 25 at the Rotary Classic in Jackson, Tenn. At the time, MidAmerica Nazarene was the top-ranked team in the NAIA and Westmont was ranked second. The Pioneers prevailed 56-53.

This season the Warriors have had one common opponent – Bethel of Tennessee (20-11). Both teams played Bethel at this year's Rotary Classic. On November 24, Westmont defeated Bethel 54-40. The following evening MidAmerica was victorious over Bethel by a score of 64-58. Bethel, was a seventh seed in this year's NAIA Championship and lost to Vanguard (23-5) in the first round by a tally of 76-57.
 
MidAmerica Nazarene is led in scoring by 5-8 junior guard Alisha Washington (14.5 points per game) and 6-3 senior center Tristin Wicks (13.8 points per game). Against Providence, Washington tallied 32 points. Tipoff tomorrow is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. local time (5:00 p.m. PDT).