St. Louis, MO 1/25/2023- The Westminster College women's basketball traveled to St. Louis on Wednesday to take on the Fontbonne University Griffins. It was a back-and-forth game that saw the game tied ten times and four lead changes. Neither team would lead by over eight points in the game. The Blue Jays would have a 58-55 lead with 4:07 left in the game. The Griffins would outscore the Blue Jays 15-6 in the final four minutes to regain the lead and win the game 70-64. With the victory, Fontbonne improves to 4-3 in the SLIAC and 9-9 on the season. Westminster falls to 4-3 in conference play and 10-8 overall on the year. The Blue Jays currently hold the #4 spot in the conference at the halfway point of the SLIAC schedule and the Griffins are #5.
Annette Ramirez (Sarcoxie, MO / Sarcoxie) stayed hot, nailing a three to give the Blue Jays an early 3-1 lead. The Griffins would take the lead and go up 8-3 in the early part of the first quarter. Both teams would struggle on offense, with the Blue Jays would scoring their second field goal of the game with five minutes left in the quarter to make it 8-5. Fontbonne would get to the foul line and grow their lead, ending the first quarter up 15-9.
The Griffins would maintain their lead in the first half of the second quarter, going up 23-15. Westminster chipped into the deficit and the half on a 9-3 run and went to the locker room at halftime trailing 26-24.
Fontbonne started the third quarter on a 4-0 run. The Blue Jays answered with a 4-0 run of their own to make it 30-28 early in the second half. Ramirez would tie it with a layup off an assist from Carli Libhart (Rolla, MO/Rolla). Shelby Kurtz (Camdenton, MO/Camdenton) would give the Blue Jays the lead after making a jumper to make it 32-30. The two teams would trade baskets for the rest of the quarter, with Westminster leading 43-41 at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter started with both teams getting to the foul line and they each make a free throw and miss one. Fontbonne would score their next possession to tie the game 44-44 with 8:56 left to play. After a pair of layups each way, Ramirez drilled a three to put the Blue Jays up 49-46. Fontbonne would tie the game once again at 53-53 with 6 minutes left. The lead would continue to juggle back and forth. The Griffins would make a layup to take a 59-58 lead and then scored another layup forcing the Blue Jays to call timeout with 2:31 remaining. Westminster trailed 61-58. After the timeout, Kurtz would score to put the Jays down 1 point. Fontbonne would score on their next two possessions to take a 65-60 lead. The Blue Jays would foul to extend the game but would end up losing 70-64.
Ramirez led the way scoring 28 points and grabbing 5 rebounds. Libhart and Kurtz would both have 10 points in the game.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Saturday, January 28th when they travel to take on Blackburn College. That game will start at 1:00 PM
