Westmont Women’s Basketball (6-0, 2-0 GSAC) finished up the first weekend of Golden State Athletic Conference play with a 72-41 victory over Ottawa of Arizona (4-5, 0-2) on Saturday afternoon in Murchison Gymnasium.
Stefanie Berberabe followed up her triple-double performance on Thursday against Arizona Christian with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals in just 28 minutes of play. Sophomore guard Kate Goostrey added another 10 points and four assists in 23 minutes while senior forward Sydney Brown notched nine points, nine rebounds, five steals and three blocks in 30 minutes of play. Every player for the Warriors had at least one field goal.
“It was good to get contributions from everyone,” said Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. “Coming out of the GSAC opening weekend, it has highlighted some things that we need to improve on and it is also nice to get a couple of wins under our belt.”
Ottawa scored the first two points on a layup by Tatiana Gary before Westmont scored the next 13. Goostrey and Berberabe hit a pair of triples and Goostrey added another three to make the score 9-2. A layup by Sage Kramer (9 points, 3 rebounds) and a jumper by Brown completed the run. Westmont closed out the opening frame on a 5-2 run with an old-fashioned three by Brown and a pair of free throws by Berberabe.
“I was pleased with our start and we were definitely focused on that after Thursday night, feeling like we didn’t set the tone early enough,” noted Moore. “You can see from the box score, however, we were up and down with stretches that were really good tonight and stretches where we got sloppy. We still have a long way to go to be the team we are capable of. Obviously, we are doing some good things along the way and just need to stay focused and keep getting better each day.”
The Spirit found some offensive rhythm in the second frame, but were still outscored by the Warriors 22-18. Tiana Sledge tallied 10 points for Ottawa, four on free throws, while Westmont was led by Berberabe who went four-for-four from the floor.
Westmont took a 40-22 lead into the second half. Defense ruled the first half of the penultimate period with neither team making more than one field goal in the first five minutes. A layup by Paula Graichen (6 points, 3 rebounds), after a steal by Isabella Pearson, sparked a 13-0 run in the balance of the quarter. Westmont outscored Ottawa 15-3 in the period.
Pearson continued the run with a layup before Graichen added another. Then, Sage Kramer drained a 3-pointer to give Westmont a 51-25 advantage. Layups by Kate Goostrey and Alenna Cook closed out the third quarter with a 55-25 lead for the Warriors.
In the final frame, Westmont led by as much as 33 points on three occasions before closing out the game with a 31-point win.
The Warriors will hit the road this week for a pair of games. Today, Westmont will take on Cal Poly Pomona in an exhibition match-up. Then on Wednesday, the Warriors will face off with the Golden Eagles of La Sierra on Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m.
Ron Smith is the sports information director at Westmont College.
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