By Ron Smith
January 18, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Women's Basketball (10-6, 6-3) finished off the third week of January with a 71-55 conference win over Menlo (7-9, 3-6) on Saturday afternoon in Murchison Gymnasium.
 
"I continue to be proud of the growth of this team and the ways we are learning to fight through adversity," said Westmont's veteran head coach Kirsten Moore. "In different scenarios and different situations, we are finding ways to win basketball games. We are finding new ways of playing together and working together and building synergy out there."
 
Sage Kramer tallied 28 points and collected 10 rebounds to record her first double-double of the season. Bailey Fong added 16 points while making four of eight from distance. Jazmyn Shipp notched nine points and nine rebounds and Noemie Bariteau added eight points.
 
The Warriors doubled up the Oaks in the first quarter, posting a 16-8 advantage in points to go with a 15-9 margin in rebounds. Five different Warriors scored in the opening frame, led by Bariteau who tallied five points on a triple that made the score 7-0, and a jumper that gave the Warriors a 9-2 advantage.
 
Westmont increased its lead in the second quarter, taking a 37-25 lead into the halftime locker room. Kramer notched seven points in the frame on a couple of field goals and three free throws. Fong added six points, hitting two buckets from long distance. The Warriors also increased their rebound advantage to 27-15.
 
Kramer continued her scoring in the penultimate period, tallying 10 points on two treys and two buckets in the paint. The Oaks took back a bit of ground, narrowing Westmont's lead to nine (52-43). The Warriors continued their reign on the boards, extending their rebounding advantage to 41-21.
 
The final frame opened with a Warrior 13-3 run. Fong scored the first five points on a pair of free throws and a 3-point haymaker. Kramer and Shipp followed Fong's lead, each hitting from beyond the arc. Shipp completed the run with a put-back after an offensive rebound.
 
"It started on the defensive end," said Moore of the rally. "We were able to get stops. Lisa got a big steal for us and she got it to Bailey. Instead of shooting, Bailey found Mariah for a wide-open three and Mariah knocked down. It was a huge momentum-play that started on defensive end and finished on an unselfish play on our offensive end. That was just one example of some things in the fourth quarter that helped us stay the course."
 
The resulting 19-point advantage (65-46) with 2:48 remaining in regulation proved to be more than sufficient to extend the Warriors' win streak to five.
 
"Every single win in this conference is hard to get," noted Moore. "For us to start stringing together some wins is fun to see.
 
"The growth I saw today is in the specifics of executing a game plan. There were things specific to this team that we needed to do, that we did. That was growth and shows our ability to adjust with different teams and different styles."
 
The final rebound tally went 54-26 in Westmont's favor. Lisa Kiefer led the way with 13, but it was a team effort in which six different Warriors tallied five or more: Kramer 10, Shipp 9, Molly Garnand 7, Bariteau and Mariah Brown five each. To go with her five points and five rebounds, Brown added five assists.
 
The Warriors claimed 22 offensive rebounds, leading to 16 second-chance points.
 
As a team, Westmont made 10 of 25 attempts from 3-point range.
 
Next week, the Warriors will host Hawai'i Pacific (7-6, 3-4) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and Chaminade of Hawaii (5-12, 4-7) on Saturday at one o'clock.