By Ron Smith
January 2, 2025
 
(HONOLULU) Westmont Women's Basketball (5-6, 2-3 PacWest) was not feeling the famed aloha spirit after falling 64-63 in Thursday's game against Chaminade (4-8, 3-3) on Oahu. After a controversial call gave the Silverswords the ball with 6.5 seconds remaining, Chaminade's Morgan Escobedo scored on a buzzer-beating layup to claim the win for the home team.
 
"Overall, it was a rough game for us today," said Westmont's head coach Kirsten Moore. "We have to find a way to be better defensively and a lot better on the boards. Credit them for their effort and the ways they were able to take advantage of us. I think we are capable of being a lot better defensive team than that and we didn't show it today."
 
Late in the game, Westmont took a 62-61 lead after Lisa Kiefer fed the ball to Sage Kramer under the basket. Guarded by two Silverswords, Kramer went up strong and made the basket, recording her 28th point with 28 seconds remaining in the game.
 
After the ball was brought up the court, Chaminade's Alyssa Schuetze missed a shot in the paint. However, Kramer was called for a foul and Schuetze was awarded two free throws. After making the first to tie the game at 62, she missed the second and Kiefer secured the rebound.
 
Kiefer was immediately fouled by Kali Jones, sending the Warrior forward to the free throw line on the opposite end. After making the first attempt to give Westmont a 63-62 lead, Kiefer missed the second with the ball rebounding to the left sideline. A scramble for the ball ended when a whistle blew. That's when the referee called traveling against the Warriors, despite what appeared to be a lack of possession of the ball.
 
Moore vigorously objected to the call, but the referees were unsympathetic to her pleas.
 
Chaminade called timeout and advanced the ball into their front court with 6.5 seconds left, setting up Escobedo's heroics.
 
"There are a lot of things out of our control here, but we also didn't control a lot of the things we do have control over," noted Moore. "That really hurt us tonight. There are always going to be challenging factors when you travel, but we can't let that be an excuse for our result. They played better than us tonight and deserved to win. Unfortunately, we needed to be better."
 
Kramer led the way for the Warriors, with a career-high 28 points. The junior guard made 12 of 18 attempts from the floor including three of four from beyond the arc. In the process, she raised her scoring average to 16.5 points per game and recorded her fourth 20-point game this season.
 
"I am proud of Sage," expressed Moore. "She carried us on the offensive end, putting the ball in the basket. She was tough, being able to play 40 minutes in this humidity. We needed her out there. We couldn't afford to take her off the floor because of what she was giving us on the offensive end. We have a lot of people capable of stepping up and supporting her. It was just hard to get it all synced tonight."
 
Noemie Beriteau added 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals to the Warriors' totals while Molly Garnand notched nine points, four rebounds and two steals. Kiefer led the Warriors in rebounding with seven boards.
 
Chaminade jumped out to a 12-point lead to start the game, leading 17-5 with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter. Westmont responded with an 8-2 run on a layup by Bailey Fong and a pair of triples from Kramer to cut the deficit to six (19-13) at the end of the opening frame.
 
In the second quarter, Westmont limited the Silverswords to eight points and pulled within two (25-23) when Bariteau sank a couple of free throws with just under three minutes to play before the intermission. Chaminade took two points back on a layup by Julien Parado before another Kramer layup produced a 27-25 halftime score.
 
The Warriors found their shooting range in the third quarter, outscoring the Silverswords 25-18 to finish the frame with a 50-45 lead. Westmont's first lead came with 7:25 remaining in the penultimate period, courtesy of a jumper by Garnand. The quarter ended on a trey by Bariteau with 17 seconds to play.
 
Westmont's largest lead (60-54) came with 3:43 left in the game on a free throw from Kiefer. However, Chaminade scored the next seven points and recaptured the lead (61-60) on a layup by Parado with 40 seconds remaining in regulation. That led to the previously described final seconds.
 
Westmont will remain in the 50th State to take on the Vulcans of Hawai'i Hilo on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. HST / 7:30 p.m. PST.