By Ron Smith
February 5, 2022
 
(FULLERTON, Calif.) With a 59-52 win over the Royals of Hope International (22-3, 12-3), fifth-ranked Westmont Women's Basketball (19-3, 12-2) has moved into a first-place tie in the Golden State Athletic Conference standings with The Master's (22-2, 11-2).
 
One of Westmont's two loses was a COVID-19 related forfeit to San Diego Christian on January 15. Had the Warriors played and won that game, they would stand alone in first place.
 
If both Westmont and The Master's should win out in the final four remaining conference games, Westmont will receive the GSAC's first automatic berth into the NAIA National Championship due to the conference's tiebreaker rules.
 
"Hope International has been playing really well, having just come off a big win against The Master's," noted Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. "We knew that playing them at their place - and with them having a lot of momentum - that it was going to be a tough game that would require a lot of grit. I thought we did a really good job making plays when we needed to. Nothing came easy tonight, but we stuck with it."
 
The game was a team effort with seven different players scoring five or more points and five recording five or more rebounds.
 
"There were different moments were different people stepped up and made big plays on both ends of the floor," agreed Moore. "We played really good defense, in the first half especially. We limited their 3-point shooters. Hope is ranked fifth in the country in 3-pointers made, averaging over 10 per game. We held them to five, the result of a big defensive effort. We also beat them on the boards, which was important."
 
The Warriors tallied 47 rebounds to the Royals 33, with 18 coming off the offensive glass.
 
Three-pointers by Iyree Jarrett and Laila Saenz, helped the Warriors jump out to a 6-2 lead to start the game. However, the Royals answered with a 6-0 run to take an 8-6 advantage. Sydney Brown produced a second-chance layup off an offensive rebound and Kaitlin Larson made a free throw to put the Warriors up 9-8 before Hope's Ysabelle Halemano scored on a layup to put the Royals back on top 10-8. It proved to be Hope's largest lead of the game
 
Gabriella Stoll for the Warriors and Shiane Talley for the Royals traded back-to-back layups with just over two minutes to go in the first half, keeping the Royals up by one (12-11). On the next trip down the floor, Saenz drained her second three of the night to give Westmont a 14-12 advantage. After Talley scored from the paint again, tying the game at 14, Stoll and Jarrett connected on layups in the final minute of the opening frame, giving Westmont an 18-14 lead headed into the second quarter.
 
Jenanette Fine scored early in the second period to pull Hope within two, but Aleena Cook answered with a three to put Westmont up 21-16. Westmont continued to lead throughout the quarter, but never by more than six points. At halftime, Westmont's advantage was just 28-24.
 
With 5:28 to play in the third quarter, Rhianne Omori scored on a jumper to give Hope a 33-32 advantage and what turned out to be its last lead of the afternoon. Just 26 seconds later, Stefanie Berberabe dished the ball to Kaitlin Larson in the paint for the go-ahead bucket.
 
At the end of the quarter, the same duo connected again, giving Westmont a six-point lead (42-36) headed into the final frame.
 
With just over seven minutes to play in the game, Berberabe snatched an offensive rebound and scored on a underhanded-reserve layup to put the Warriors on top 47-39 – their largest lead of the game.
 
Two and one-half minutes later, Berberabe restored Westmont's eight-point advantage when she scored from beyond the arc.
 
With 1:34 remaining to play, Fine hit a jumper to cut the Warriors' advantage to just three points (51-48). Seven seconds later, Laila Saenz was fouled and made both free throws to put the Warrior back on top 53-48. Just 16 seconds after that, Fine collected an offensive board and scored on a layup to make it a one possession game (53-50) game with 1:11 to play. Fine was fouled on the play, but was unable to convert the and-one attempt.
 
With 38 seconds showing on the game clock, Berberabe started to drive the lane but instead stepped back, shaking her defender and nailing a bucket from 18-feet out.
 
The Royals' Shailissa Jarrett, after being fouled by her older sister Iyree Jarrett, drained two free throws to once again make it a single possession game (53-52) with 21 seconds before the final buzzer. That, however, was the final points Hope would score. Larson and Destiny Okonkwo sank two free throws each in the waning seconds of the game to secure the Warrior win and account for the final score.
 
"It was a really physical game all the way around," remarked Moore. "We went to the free throw line and made them pay for taking a lot of risks and being physical on the defensive end."
 
Westmont made 18 of 25 free throw attempts while limiting Hope to just seven of 12 attempts.  
 
Berberabe tallied 14 points, six rebounds and five assists while Saenz scored 10 points. Larson and Jarrett each notched eight points with Larson pulling down six rebounds. Stoll added six points and five rebounds and Cook scored six points as well. Destiny Okonkwo led the team in rebounding with 10 while also scoring five points.
 
Next week, the Warriors will return to Murchison Gymnasium for the final home games of the year. On Thursday, Westmont will host Vanguard (9-10, 5-9). Then on Saturday, Life Pacific (1-20, 0-14) will travel to Montecito for what will be senior night for Westmont. Both games are slated for a 5:30 p.m. start.
 
"It's a big opportunity for us to come home in our final homestand of the year,' said Moore. "Hopefully, people will come out and support us."