ST. LOUIS - Westminster women's basketball dropped a key conference match-up to Fontbonne 64-54.
The Blue Jays fall to 11-10 overall and 6-6 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
"I feel like a broken record after many of these conference games, but we keep having some of the same issues," said Westminster Head Coach James Arnold. "I give a lot of credit to Fontbonne. They played really hard, beat us to 50/50 balls, out-rebounded us, and executed really well."
After almost two minutes of scoreless play, Kendahl Adams hit two freethrows to go up 2-0. After the first seven minutes, Westminster's only seven points came from freethrows. At the 3:29 mark, the Mirrakohl Johnson hit a jump shot for the first Blue Jay field goal of the game. Adams ended the half with a three-pointer to make the score 15-12 in favor of the Griffins after the first quarter.
Fontbonne managed to maintain a lead throughout the second quarter, going up by as many as nine points with two minutes left in the half. Kelsey Ray hit five points along with a layup from Grace Archambault in the remaining minutes to make the score 35-26 at the half.
The Griffins broke open their first double-digit lead of the game in the third quarter. Adams hit a three-pointer but it wasn't enough for Westminster to get in an offensive rhythm. At the 1:26 mark, Fontbonne took a 15-point lead for the biggest of the game.
Johnson and Mikalyn Callahan each hit a basket in the remaining minutes to put Westminster back within 11 points going into the fourth quarter.
Johnson and Archambault put Westminster back in single digits but Fontbonne went on a 6-0 run to secure their lead with six minutes to play in the game. The Blue Jays were never able to close the gap with the Griffins, falling 64-54.
Leading the Blue Jays offensively was Johnson at 14 points. Adams also scored in double-digits with 11.
"We have some opportunities over the next couple of weeks to position ourselves for a playoff berth," said Arnold. "We'll need to play much better and tougher than we did today."
Westminster returns home to face Iowa Wesleyan Wednesday at 6 p.m.
