By Ron Smith
March 1, 2025
 
(SAN DIEGO, Calif.) Playing short-handed in the final game of the regular season, Westmont Women's Basketball (17-10, 13-7) suffered a 57-39 loss to the PacWest Champion Sea Lions of Point Loma Nazarene (23-5, 8-2). The Warriors were without the services of Lisa Kiefer and Bailey Fong.
 
Mariah Brown led the Warriors in scoring, tallying 10 points. She also had five rebounds and three assists. Sage Kramer produced eight points and five rebounds. Jazmyn Shipp led the Warriors on the boards with 12 rebounds to go with six points.
 
"Every game is an opportunity to learn," asserted Westmont's head coach Kirsten Moore. "Tonight, we played the top team in the conference and got to see what that looks like, where we are falling short, and what we need to improve on. I like that we got to see that going into the conference tournament next week. Hopefully, we can take stuff we can learn from today and be able to implement it next week, especially in our first game against Fresno Pacific."
 
Westmont, who qualified for the PacWest Championship in its first year of eligibility, will be the fourth seed in the six-team tournament. The Warriors will face the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific (14-13, 10-10) who is the fifth-seeded team in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 6. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:45 p.m.
 
The winner will take on top-seeded Point Loma on Friday, March 7, tipping off at the same time.
 
The other quarterfinal game will pit Dominican (20-11, 14-6) as the number three seed against Biola (7-21, 7-13) who is seeded sixth. The winner between Dominican and Biola will play second-seeded Azusa Pacific (22-5, 16-4).
 
Westmont played Fresno Pacific twice in December. The Warriors won the first game in Fresno by a score of 56-40, then prevailed in a home contest 70-63.
 
"It has been a long time since we played Fresno," pointed out Moore. "I think they have grown a lot and we have grown a lot since then. We expect it to be a tough battle. If you don't have a bye, every game could be the last.
 
"Hopefully, we can get healthier, play our best basketball, put a good game plan together, take it one game at a time, and try to win the first one. Winning the first game is the first goal."