By Jacob Norling
January 20, 2024
 
(La Mirada, Calif.) Westmont Women's Basketball saw a steady improvement in their first half's play on Saturday night in La Mirada, but in the second half, the Biola Eagles pulled away in an eventual 63-51 loss for Westmont. A week ago in Irvine the Warriors had a miserable first half, scoring only four points in each of the first two quarters against Concordia.
 
Tonight, Westmont closed out the first quarter on a 9-0 run, entering the second quarter of action with a 14-13 lead over their rivals. In the final seconds of the opening frame, it was a three from Sage Kramer that gave the Warriors the advantage.
 
The two sides stayed neck-and-neck through the second quarter, with Biola edging Westmont 17-14 to take a 30-28 advantage into the locker room. Westmont's defense held their own in the third quarter of action, with Biola only scoring 11 points during the frame, the smallest single-quarter total they would score all night. The problem for Westmont, however, was the fact that the club only scored eight points of their own in the third on three of 15 shooting.
 
The deficit expanded steadily for Biola in the fourth quarter, with the largest lead of the night being 18 points at the 3:24 mark in the contest. Westmont would get back within 10 in the contest's final minutes, but the damage was in the eventual 12-point defeat.
 
Neither team shot the lights out on Saturday, with Westmont shooting 34.5% (19-55) from the field, while Biola shot 35.7% (25-70). The issue, however, was Westmont committed 20 turnovers compared to Biola's 11, and the Warriors made only four of 21 shots from three-point land, while Biola converted nine. With that, Biola shot an astronomical 39 3-pointers, but the nine that did finally fall for the Eagles provided much-needed momentum.
 
Individually for Westmont, Sage Kramer ended with 17 points to go along with five rebounds. Elsewhere, Aleena Cook had eight points and four rebounds, while Destiny Okonkwo led the team with an even 10 rebounds.
 
Westmont returns to action on Thursday in Fresno, when the team takes on the Sunbirds at 3:30 p.m. Links to live coverage will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.