By Ron Smith
January 24, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Junior guard Maud Ranger drained five of eight three-point attempts and led the Warriors with 17 points as #14 Westmont Women's Basketball (14-6, 7-3 GSAC) recorded a 61-49 Golden State Athletic Conference win over OUAZ (Ariz.) (8-9, 2-8) at Murchison Gymnasium.
 
The Warriors jumped out to a 14-0 advantage by scoring on their first five possessions – a run that proved to be the difference in the game. Freshman post Kaitlin Larson provided the first points on an 'and-one' layup and then drained a three-pointer from the top of the key to make the score 6-0.
 
Larson would end the night with 15 points, four rebounds and five steals. Fellow freshman post Sydney Brown would added 13 points and nine rebounds.
 
"Kaitlin continues to be a great inside presence for us," stated Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. "Syd was really aggressive and dangerous on the offensive boards. That is one thing we did well all night. As inconsistent as we were in a lot of aspects of the game, we were really consistent at crashing the boards."
 
After a steal by Larson on the defensive end, the Warriors continued their opening run when Brown connected on a layup. Ranger then connected for the first of her long-range bombs.
 
"We had a great start and then a major lull after that," stated Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. "We came out really well. Maud was focused, hitting shots outside, and we were able to go inside. I thought our defense was really good in the first quarter and stayed fairly tight and pretty consistent the whole game. However, we were inconsistent offensively today. We will be need to be better against Arizona Christian on Saturday.
 
The two teams would play even basketball the rest of the quarter with the Warriors leading 25-11 at the end of the opening frame. The second quarter saw the Spirit continue to keep pace with the Warriors, edging Westmont by one point (13-12) to produce a halftime margin of 37-24.
 
OUAZ came out of the halftime locker room with determination and scored the first eight points of the second half. Jorie Mayfield (15 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists) and Elizabeth Garcia (4 points, 3 assists) each scored on a layup before Mayfield scored again, this time on a jumper. After Mayfield pilfered the ball from the Warriors, Baily Osmer (10 points, 7 rebounds) scored on another layup to draw the Spirit to within five (37-32).
 
An opportune timeout called by Moore had the effect of righting the Warriors' ship. Westmont outscored the OUAZ 12-2 in the final six minutes of the penultimate period taking a 49-34 lead into the final frame.
 
Westmont continued the run in the fourth quarter by scoring the first seven point, five of which were from the charity stripe. That gave the Warriors their largest lead of the game at 56-34 with 6:15 remaining in the contest. OUAZ would cut the margin to 12 before the clock expired, but the Warriors would claim their 14th victory of the season.
 
Saturday, the Warriors will host #24 Arizona Christian (15-7, 8-2) with a chance to move into a tie with the Firestorm for second place in the GSAC standings. Arizona Christian lost at #10 The Master's (17-4, 9-1) tonight by a score of 77-59 in a battle for sole possession of first place.
 
"Arizona Christian is an unbelievably talented team and really dangerous offensively," assessed Moore. "We are going to have to play our best game of the year to have a chance on Saturday."
 
Westmont took the first meeting between the two teams on November 29, winning in Phoenix by a score of 68-61.