LOUISVILLE - Westminster men's basketball came away with a 67-64 win over Spalding.
The Blue Jays improve to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
"The Blue Jays were very fortunate today," said Westminster Head Coach Matt Mitchell. "Spalding is a young team that out-played us for 25 minutes. We got off to a great start but went through a long shooting drought."
Westminster started out the night with back-to-back three-pointers from Kobe Wands and Collin Caywood.
The Blue Jays continued to have a strong offensive half, going up by double digits, 23-13, at the 10:52 mark with a freethrow form Cody Shaw. From that point until the 5:46 mark, Westminster went on a 12-2 run to increase their lead to 16.
A jump shot from Caywood to end the half ended the first 20 minutes with Westminster up 39-29.
Despite the strong offensive first half, Westminster started the second half struggling to score. The Golden Eagles opened the half on a 10-2 run to get back in the game. At the 14:30 mark, they took their first lead of the game 45-42 on a made three-pointer, forcing the Blue Jays to call a timeout.
Westminster went down by as many as 11 points with just under six minutes remaining. At the 3:17 mark, Kobe Wands hit back-to-back three-pointers to put Westinster back in single digits.
With 1:22 remaining, Stephen Brandt hit a layup to make the score 64-60 in favor of Spalding. Caywood then hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds left. The next possession, Spalding missed a shot and Cody Shaw made the defensive rebound to secure the ball for the Blue Jays. Shaw then sunk two freethrows to give Westminster a one-point lead with under 30 seconds to play.
"We picked up our defensive intensity in the last five minutes and created some turnovers," said Mitchell. "This ended up being an unexpected win for us today."
Carter Wands made a steal with 15 seconds left, and Kobe Wands then hit two more freethrows to give Westminster the 67-64.
Kobe Wands led all scorers with 21 points, including going 5-10 from behind the arc. Tanner Cochran added 12 points and Carter Wands added 10.
Westminster returns home next weekend to face Principia Saturday and Millikin Sunday.
