FULTON, Mo. - Westminster women's basketball dominates Spalding 72-48 for its second conference win of the season.
The Blue Jays improve to 3-7 overall and 2-2 in the SLIAC.
"We had a great energy tonight," said Westminster Head Coach Tracey Braden. "I loved our defensive intensity. We talked about how important a good start would be in the game - we executed that to a tee."
Andrea Zalis recorded her second straight double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Mirrakohl Johnson added her second double-double of the year with 11 points and 10 boards.
Payton Beeler added 13 and Mikalyn Callahan recorded 11 points to round out the Blue Jay scoring.
"To have four players in double figures and two with a double-double shows our depth and ability to score," said Braden. "We have multiple people who can step up and get the job done any given night."
After a short trade-off of points to open the game, Zalis hit a three-pointer to make the score 9-6 at the 5:41 mark of the first quarter and the Blue Jays never looked back.
Westminster held the Golden Eagles to just eight points in a nine-minute streth during the first and second quarters while going on a 15-0 run to open the early lead. They eventually went into the locker rooms at the half with a commanding 36-14 lead.
Spalding was back within 15 points late in the third quarter, but back-to-back three-pointers from Zalis and Beeler pulled the lead back to over 20 points for the Blue Jays.
Zalis went 7-18 from the field, including 5-11 from behind the three-point line. As a team, Westminster was 9-20 (45%) from three-point range, 24-49 (40.7%) from the field, and 15-17 from freethrow (88.2%).
"It would have been easy for us to make the excuse to be tired from finals week, but we came out with a lot of energy" said Zalis. "This was a big win for us moving forward. We were aggressive the entire game and that mentality will help us as games get more important."
Westminster hits the court again in a nonconference game Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. against Coe.
