The Westminster women were rolling against the undefeated Webster initially Sunday, before the Gorloks took over.
The Blue Jays couldn’t hang on to its six-point lead after one quarter while Webster forced 28 turnovers, converting those miscues into 28 points to hand Westminster its first loss, 76-64, in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Madison Schaeffer led the Blue Jays (6-8, 2-1 SLIAC) and their 19-12 advantage on the offensive boards with her 13-point, 11-rebound performance — her first career double-double — with eight of those being on the offensive end. Schaeffer pulled down 19 rebounds in her previous two games, with 68.4 percent of them happening on the offensive glass. Reese Arnold was another Blue Jay to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points and nine rebounds, along with Annette Ramirez’s 11 points and Avylina Powell-Qualo’s 10 points off the bench.
Shelby Kurtz and Arnold knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers for Westminster to give it a 10-3 lead with 7:13 left in the first quarter, before the Blue Jays opened up a 17-8 lead after a Powell-Qualo 3-point play at 4:26. Westminster exited the first quarter with a 25-19 lead.
Webster’s Naomi Johnson hit a 3-pointer at 7:14 in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 27-23 before the Gorlok defense turned over Westminster twice to score both times and tie the game at 27.
Ramirez, who recently entered the game, hit a 3-pointer before making another shot following a Powell-Qualo block to give Westminster a 32-27 lead with 3:56 left until halftime. Despite the Blue Jays’ best efforts on the offensive glass to give themselves second chances, they weren’t able to match Webster (11-0, 2-0 SLIAC), who went on an 8-0 run to lead 36-32 at halftime.
Arnold broke the cold spell and cut the deficit to 38-35 off the feed from Schaeffer with a 3-pointer at 8:39 in the third quarter. Johnson answered back from deep about a minute later after a turnover. The Blue Jays committed four more until Webster had a 50-39 lead with 4:48 left and then a 61-52 lead at the end of the quarter after Schaeffer put back her own miss to beat the buzzer.
Schaeffer scored first in the fourth quarter to cut the margin to seven before Hannah Cottrell gave Webster its double-digit lead back at 64-54 with 9:13 left in the game with a 3-pointer off a Westminster turnover. The Gorloks finished the game with a 46.3 percentage from the field while Westminster had a 33.3 percentage.
Cottrell, Johnson and Lauryn Freeman each finished with 11 points for Webster while Addison Buessink scored a game-high 17 points.
Westminster is back at home at 5:30 p.m. today to play Principia (1-7, 0-2 SLIAC) in a game that was postponed Jan. 8 because of COVID-19 protocols.