Galesburg, IL 12/12/2022- The Westminster College women's basketball team traveled to Galesburg, Illinois for a showdown with the Knox College Prairie Fire on Monday night. It was a back and fourth affair all night and they would need to go to overtime to decide a winner. When the dust settled the Blue Jays walked away victorious with a final score of 84-82.
There were 22 ties and 26 lead changes in the game. The Blue Jays saw their largest lead of the game with 8:49 left in the 3rd quarter and leading by seven points. Knox got their largest lead of the game with 4:10 left in the game as they were leading by nine points at the time. Westminster went on a 10-0 run and took the lead at 69-66 with 1:38 left to play. The Prairie Fire would make four free throws in the final minute to tie the game 71-71 and send it to overtime.
In overtime, Knox struck first, and they would trade baskets to give the Prairie Fire a 75-73 advantage. Annette Ramirez (Sarcoxie, MO / Sarcoxie) was fouled on a three-point attempt. She would make all three free throws giving the Jays a 76-76 lead with 2:39 left in the overtime period. The two teams would trade the lead for the next four possessions. Shelby Kurtz (Camdenton, MO/Camdenton) was fouled as Knox was trying to extend the game. Kurtz would make both free throws to give Westminster a three-point lead, 82-79 with 28 seconds left.
The Prairie Fire would bring the ball up the court and find a shooter wide open in the right corner and she would nail the three-pointer to tie the game again 82-82 with 14 seconds left to play. The Jays would call time out to advance the ball past half-court. The play that Coach Washington drew up was broken immediately as the Prairie Fire had a lot of pressure on the inbounds pass. Kurtz was the inbound passer and threw the ball to Ramirez who had to save the ball from going out of bounds. Maile Peck (Marshfield, MO / Marshfield) was there to pick up the loose ball and find a cutting Natalie Archambault (Eureka, MO /) who had a wide-open layup but was fouled hard on the attempt. Archambault would make both free throws to give Westminster an 84-82 lead with 9 seconds remaining. Knox called a timeout of their own, they would get a good look at the basket as it would hit off the glass and the rim. There was a fight for the rebound and a jump ball was called. The possession arrow was in favor of Knox. They got the ball back at their baseline with 0.2 remaining. The Prairie Fire tried to run a tip play but it was swatted away by the Blue Jays, and they hold on to win 84-82 in overtime.
Westminster wins their third straight game and improves to 4-6 on the season. Knox falls to 6-3 with the loss in what must be called the game of the year so far for both teams, who had players come up big on both sides of the ball in key moments of the game.
Ramirez, who was named SLIAC Player of the Week on Monday afternoon for her 26-point performance last Saturday, set a new career high, scoring 28 points and led the Blue Jays in scoring. She was 8-14 from the field and 11-14 from the free throw line. Kurtz had a double-double, and tied a career-high, scoring 21 points and snagging 11 rebounds. Archambault scored 11 points, hauled in 7 rebounds, and had 7 steals in the game. She was 3-4 from the line, including the two free throws that ended up winning the game.
The Blue Jays were outrebounded 50 to 34 but overcame it by forcing 25 turnovers. The game was ultimately decided at the free throw line, Westminster went 23-30 from the line and Knox was 10-13.
Westminster will be back in action on Saturday, December 17th as they hit the road again to take on Monmouth College. That game will tip off at 6:00 PM.
