By Tim Heiduk
November 9, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) The #8 Westmont women's basketball team rebounded from a season-opening loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by defeating Northern New Mexico, 85-40, in its home opener on Saturday morning.
 
"It was really important to bounce back from Tuesday like we did today. Tuesday was uncharacteristic of us in a lot of senses," said Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. "We knew we weren't going to play worse than that, that's for sure. For us it was really just coming together and trying to fight for each other, getting back to the core things we know we are about."
 
The Warriors, who are already limited to eight available players on their roster, were without guard Krissy Miyahara today, who was home for a family emergency.
 
"We've had so much adversity already this year and we were without Krissy today," said Moore. "We were really playing for her and her family, for what they're going through right now. That was a lot of extra motivation for us, to go out there and really represent what Krissy's about, which is energy, team, confidence, and competing. We wanted to relish that opportunity to compete for her and I'm really proud of the women for how they did that."
 
Northern New Mexico hit a 3-pointer to take an early 3-0 lead, but it was the Warriors who then put on a 3-point shooting clinic, draining seven triples in the first quarter alone after only making seven in the entire game against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Westmont took a commanding 26-7 advantage after the first quarter of play, behind three 3-pointers from Lauren Tsuneishi and two from Taylor Rarick.
 
"We're really good shooters. We have a lot of confidence shooting the ball," said Moore. "They went into a little zone there and we took advantage of that for a while. When we start seeing the ball go in, it also compounds and continues to give us confidence."
 
The Warriors' 3-point shooting cooled off in the second quarter, as the team missed all eight of its 3-point attempts in the period. Yet, Westmont still outscored Northern New Mexico 11-8 in the quarter to take a 37-15 lead into halftime.
 
Westmont got its inside game going in the third period, as Gabriella Stoll scored 10 of the team's first 11 points of the quarter on four field goals and two free throws. Westmont found its stroke back from beyond the arc, shooting two for two from deep, as the Warriors put up 23 points in the third to take a 60-29 lead going into the final quarter.
 
In the fourth quarter, Westmont scored 25 points, 15 of which came from 3-pointers. Maud Ranger scored 10 of her 15 points in the final period, shooting three for four from downtown in the fourth.
 
"Maud got hot late and hit a bunch in a row," said Moore. "I think we did a really good job of finding players that were hot, when they were hot, and getting the ball into the right people's hands."
 
Stoll added nine points in the fourth quarter, as she scored 19 of her career-high 20 points in the second half.
 
"Gabby's a really diverse offensive player. She can score inside, she can shoot outside, she can shoot the three," said Moore. "I think as she starts finding her way as she's playing a bigger role for us this year with Syd out, she's capable of a lot. I'm excited for this year for her."
 
Besides Stoll and Ranger, two other Warriors reached double-figures in scoring, including 13 from Tsuneishi and 10 from Rarick. Three others just missed out on double digits, as Iyree Jarrett, Kaitlin Larson, and Stefanie Berberabe all scored nine points.
 
As a team, Westmont shot 43.8% (14 for 32) from downtown, better than the 41.4% the Warriors shot from the field.
 
Defensively, Westmont limited Northern New Mexico to 36.8% shooting, including 15.4% from 3-point range. The Warriors won the turnover battle, committing only five turnovers compared to 25 for the Eagles. Westmont converted that to a 32-0 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
"We had tons of scrap and hustle," said Moore. "We created 25 turnovers and 16 of those were in the first half. That's a lot of first half turnovers to create. At halftime, we'd only turned the ball over once. The turnover differential I think was huge in this game."
 
Larson and Ranger tied for the team lead with seven rebounds, while Stoll added six. Ranger also led the Warriors with a career-high six steals. Berberabe and Jarrett each tallied a game-high six assists.
 
The team returns to the court next Saturday at Cal Lutheran. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. in Thousand Oaks.