SALT LAKE CITY --- At the same place where the Western Colorado women's basketball team's best season in years ended in 2019, the Mountaineers picked up one of the program's signature wins in the last decade Friday night.
Behind a strong first three quarters, Western Colorado held off a late run to defeat No. 15 Westminster 45-44 on the road at Behnken Field House – where the Mountaineers lost in the opening round of the RMAC Tournament last season.
It's the first win over a ranked opponent for the Mountaineers since defeating No. 5 Alaska-Anchorage 36-35 on Dec. 19, 2009, and the first victory over Westminster since the Griffins joined the conference during the 2015-16 season (had lost eight in a row).
The Mountaineers (12-4 overall, 10-2 RMAC) now sit in a tie for second place in the RMAC with Westminster (15-2, 10-2) after handing the Griffins their second loss of the season. The teams are two games back of Colorado Mesa after the Mavs defeated Dixie State – WCU's opponent Saturday night – 59-51 on Friday to move to 12-0 in RMAC play.
WCU was led by
Gabie Doud as the senior had a game-high 20 points to go along with four steals and three rebounds. She was also 9-for-10 from the free-throw line.
But it was the Mountaineer defense the led the way as WCU – ranked No. 7 in the South Central Region - held the Griffins (ranked No. 5 in the region) to 22 points through three quarters and held a 13-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
Turnovers (five – had seven in the first three quarters), fouls (eight – had seven in the first three quarters) and struggles from the field (1-for-7) allowed the Griffins to get back into the game as Westminster cut it to a single-possession game at 42-39 after a 3-pointer by Mariah Martin with 1:13 left in the contest.
Doud was fouled with a minute remaining and drained two free throws to make it 44-39 before a bucket by the Griffins 15 seconds later again made it a three-point game. Westminster had a shot to tie it with 11 seconds remaining, but a good defensive play by
Taytem Coleman on a Westminster 3-point attempt caused the miss and
Hannah Cooper grabbed the rebound and was fouled with four seconds remaining. The freshman split the free throws to make it a two-possession game as the Griffins hit a 3-pointer just before the clock hit zero to make the final WCU margin of victory one.
Along with Doud's 20 points,
Jadyn Kanzler and
Samantha Coleman had six points apiece while Cooper had three points to go along with a team-high eight rebounds and five assists.
While the Mountaineers shot just 25 percent from the field (12-for-48), including 3-for-14 (21.4 percent) from 3-point range, WCU went 18-for-20 from the free-throw line. Defensively, WCU forced 17 Griffin turnovers, held Westminster to 30.6 shooting from the field and limited the Griffins – the top scoring team in the conference – to a season-low in points (by 12 points, nonetheless).
WCU returns to action 5:30 p.m. Saturday as they travel to take on Dixie State – ranked No. 9 in the region.
