By Ron Smith
February 22, 2025
 
(LA MIRADA, Calif.) Mariah Brown tallied 22 points and Sage Kramer added 15 as Westmont Women's Basketball (17-9, 13-6 PacWest) posted a 63-51 road win over Biola on Saturday night. The Warriors never trailed in the game.
 
As they have often done this season, the Warriors controlled the boards, outrebounding the Eagles 44-26. Lisa Kiefer led the Warriors in rebounding with 15 followed by Kramer with nine.
 
The first quarter was tightly contested, ending in a 12-11 score in favor of the Warriors. Mariah Brown tallied five points to lead the Warriors in the opening frame.
 
The Warriors started the second quarter with a 6-0 run with a layup and a jumper by Kramer and a jumper by Brown. Kramer scored nine points in the second frame.
 
However, the Eagles battled back and tied the Warriors at 25 on a jumper by Laila Walker with just over three minutes remaining in the first half. In the final two and one-half minutes, Westmont outscored Biola 6-2. Garnand scored on a jumper, then Kramer made two free throws to make the score 29-25. After Sammie Henley made a jumper for Biola, Brown did the same for Westmont, resulting in a 31-27 halftime score.
 
The Warriors took control of the game in the third quarter, holding the Eagles to six points while scoring 13 of their own. Biola cut the Warrior lead to two (33-31) less than a minute into the penultimate period. Then the Warriors closed out the rest of the quarter on an 11-2 run. A layup by Brown was followed by a triple by Garnand, making the score 38-31. After a layup by Laila Walker, Brown and Noemie Bariteau hit back-to-back threes, resulting in a 44-33 lead.
 
During the final frame, Biola would get no closer than seven points. Once again, Brown led the way for the Warriors with eight points.
 
The Warriors have already secured a berth in the upcoming PacWest Tournament and will be no lower than the number four seed. Westmont is one-half game behind Dominican (19-10, 13-5) who holds the number three seed.
 
Dominican has two games remaining in the regular season. On Thursday, the Penguins will take on Vanguard (16-8, 14-4) in Costa Mesa. Then on Saturday, Dominican will close out the regular season in Irvine against Concordia (4-21, 3-15).
 
Westmont has just one game remaining. On Saturday, Westmont will travel to San Diego to take on the Sea Lions of Point Loma (21-5, 16-2).
 
Point Loma has already clinched the number one seed and at least a share of the PacWest Regular Season Championship. At 20-5 and 14-4 in conference play, Azusa Pacific has a one-game lead over Dominican for the number two seed.
 
Fresno Pacific (13-13, 9-10) will be the number five seed and Biola will be the sixth seed.
 
The tournament, which will be held at the Conlan Center on the campus of Dominican in San Rafael. The first round games will be held on Thursday, March 6 with the number three seed taking on the sixth seed and the fourth seed facing off with the fifth seed. The top two seeds have a first round bye.
 
On Friday. March 7, Point Loma will host the winner of the fourth/fifth seed game while the number two seed will take on the third/sixth seed game winner.
 
The championship will be on Saturday, March 8 at 2:00 p.m.