GUNNISON, Colo. --- The Western Colorado women's basketball team inched closer to a back-to-back postseason bids for the first time since 1990 along with equaling a program record for RMAC wins as the Mountaineers defeated Westminster 66-57 on Saturday night at Paul Wright Gym in a battle of teams tied for second in the conference.

WCU (15-6 overall, 13-4 RMAC) did so thanks to a pair of momentum-building buzzer beaters in the first half.

The Mountaineers trailed the Griffins (17-6, 12-5) 19-16 in the finals seconds of the first quarter when a bucket by Hannah Cooper cut the Westminster lead to 19-18 with 0.9 seconds left. The Griffins then committed an in-bound violation to give the ball back to the Mountaineers. Then Payton Paro hit Katie Dalton and the junior sank a jumper just as the buzzer sounded to make it 20-19 WCU.

The Mountaineers wouldn't trail again in the contest.

It appeared the Griffins had some momentum heading into the half, however, after cutting an eight-point WCU lead down to 32-29 with under a minute remaining. But again the Mountaineers took the momentum back as Taytem Coleman drained a 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer to make it 35-29 at the break.

WCU wouldn't lead by more than nine the rest of the way, but the Griffins only once cut it to a single-possession game (early in the fourth) as the Mountaineers always had an answer.

Coleman led WCU with 14 points to go along with four rebounds, Dalton had 12 points and six rebounds, Jessie Erickson had 12 points off the bench to go along with three rebounds, three steals and two assists and Hannah Cooper had 10 points, five steals, three rebounds and three assists.

Overall, the Mountaineers had 13 steals - the second most in a game this season.

The victory keeps the Mountaineers in second place in the RMAC at 13-4 - tied with Colorado School of Mines (WCU has the head-to-head tiebreaker). WCU is three games back of Colorado Mesa, a game up on fourth-place Westminster and two games up on Black Hills State for fifth - important as the top four teams host in the opening round of the RMAC Tournament and the Mountaineers are now 8-0 at home and have won each game by nine or more points (Saturday was the first time WCU hadn't won a home game by double figures).

WCU with five games remaining has a four-game lead on a trio of teams tied for the No. 8 and final spot into the RMAC Tournament - closing in on making the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.

The win also ties the program record for RMAC wins at 13 with the 2006-07 team.

The Mountaineers host their Cancer Awareness Pink Night 5:30 p.m. Friday against Regis at Paul Wright Gym. Stay tuned to WCU athletics' social media accounts and right here at GoMountaineers.com on ways you can contribute to this great cause.