St. Louis, Mo 1/31/2024- The Westminster College women's basketball team traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to take on the Fontbonne University Griffins. A strong second half propelled the Blue Jays to their sixth straight win, defeating the Griffins 66-55. Westminster improves to 11-9 on the season and 9-4 in the SLIAC. Fontbonne falls to 4-16 overall and 4-9 in conference.
Both teams started the game ice cold, not scoring the first basket until they were over two and a half minutes into the game. The Blue Jays would string together a couple of baskets to go up 6-3. The Griffins would tie up 9-9 and go on to take a 12-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Blue Jays tied the game at 12-12 early in the second quarter. Fontbonne then went on a 6-2 run to go up 18-14. Westminster scored on back-to-back possessions after getting a steal to tie the game 18-18. The offensive struggles would continue for both teams as neither team scored a field goal for the next four minutes of game time. Annette Ramirez would make one free throw to give the Jays a 19-18 lead. Fontbonne would make one of their own to tie it back up 19-19 with 2 minutes to go before halftime. Ramirez would get a steal and go coast to coast on a layup and then would hit a three the next possession to put Westminster up 24-19 at halftime.
Westminster would dominate the start of the second half, going on a 16-2 run to go up 40-21. The Griffins ended the run by hitting a three to make it 40-24 with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. They would score 8 unanswered points to make it 40-29. The third quarter came to an end, with the Blue Jays leading 44-33.
Both teams would explode offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring 22 points each. The Blue Jays would hold off the Griffins to win the game 66-55.
Annette Ramirez had her 9th 20-point game, scoring 21 points. She would also have 12 rebounds, recording her third double-double of the year. Avylina Powell-Qualo had 16 points, and 5 rebounds, going 7-10 from the field. Caragan Lockard had 10 points and 7 rebounds.
The Blue Jays will head to Louisville, Kentucky to take on Spalding University on Saturday, February 3rd. The game is set to begin at 12:00 pm CST, 1:00 pm EST in Louisville.
