Griffins On Thanksgiving

SALT LAKE CITY – One night after losing at home for the second time this season, the Westminster men’s basketball team responded with a convincing 84-51 win against Westmont. No. 9 Westminster (4-4) never trailed in the contest and limited Westmont (4-1) to just 35.4% shooting in the game.“We challenged our team to see how they bounce back,” head coach Tommy Connor said. “We wanted them to play well and they did that tonight.”Westminster scored the first four points of the game and eventually pushed the run to 16-6 over the first eight minutes. The Griffins then finished the half on a 16-4 run to turn a 22-12 lead into a 38-16 halftime advantage. Westminster held a 16-2 advantage in points in the paint during the opening 20 minutes and had six second chance points.“We really defended well tonight,” Connor commented. “We limited their easy shots, and then we made shots which has been our struggle this year. When you make shots everything else looks better.”Westminster finished the game with their most accurate shooting night of the season at 54.7%. This is only the second time this year they have topped 50% shooting. The Griffins were also on from the foul line making 21-of-23 attempts. They finished the game with a 38-18 advantage in the paint and turned 14 Westmont turnovers into 21 points. Westminster controlled the boards to the tune of a 39-22 advantage.Ben Walker led the Griffins with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting. The 23 points is a career high for the junior and matches a season high by any individual this season. Walker also controlled six rebounds and went 7-of-7 at the foul line. Blair Prowse finished with 15 points, all coming from his five makes from beyond the arc. Michael Stockton led the bench to a 28-12 advantage in bench scoring behind his 14 points. Stockton also grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists. Weston Anderson scored 12 points and Jeramie Hopson grabbed a season high seven rebounds, including four on the offensive end.Dan Rasp led Westmont with 17 points and four rebounds. Blake bender added 12 points one night after scoring 36 against Carroll College. Bender also had a team high five assists.Westminster is back in action on Friday, December 4 when they host St. Tomas (Fla.) in the Behnken Field House for the first of back-to-back meetings. That game is slated for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff with the rematch on Saturday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m.

Go Griffins!

I know that I have been bad at updating things but here is the latest update on Weston and his basketball game. He is on his way home right now from Caldwell Idaho.

This Week
The No. 9 Westminster men’s basketball team travels to Caldwell, Idaho for two games at the Golden Rule Shootout. Westminster opens the tournament against Northwest (Wash.) on Friday, November 20, at 6:00 p.m. Then they face the tournament host, the College of Idaho, on Saturday, November 21, at 8:00 p.m. Both games will be played at the Albertson Activities Center.

Westminster (1-3) carries a 3-game losing streak with them to Idaho. They went 0-2 against No. 8 Concordia (Calif.) and No. 3 Fresno Pacific at the Las Vegas Classic last weekend. This is the first time the Griffins have lost three consecutive games since the 2006-07 season and is only the sixth time that has happened since the 1999-2000 season.

Westminster is averaging 72 points per game through the first four games of the season and is shooting 45.5% from the field. They are grabbing 37.8 rebounds per game with a 2.5 rebounding margin. The Griffins rank 29th in the NAIA by holding the opposition to just 29.3% shooting from beyond the arc.

Weston Anderson leads the team in scoring and ranks 41st in the country with a scoring average of 18 points per game. Anderson has scored 20-plus points twice and had 18 points in another outing this season. Blair Prowse is averaging 3.25 makes from beyond the arc in the early going this season. That number puts him 18th in the country and second in the Frontier Conference.