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SALT LAKE CITY - The Westminster men's basketball team defeated the defending NAIA national champions Rocky Mountain College 80-68 on Friday night to advance to the Frontier Conference Tournament championship game. This is the 12th consecutive victory for the fourth-ranked Griffins and their 22nd win in the last 23 games.
"We knew they were going to play that defense against us," said head coach Tommy Connor. "I thought our attack was good, but it slowed the game down a bit."
Tonight's game was close through much of the first half and featured 16 lead changes in the first 14 minutes of action. Then trailing 24-22 at the 6:37 mark of the first half, Westminster finished the period on a 15-2 run and never looked back. Westminster carried a 37-26 lead into the intermission and pushed the advantage to 21 with 12 minutes to play in the game behind a 15-3 run.
"We got some turnovers late in the first half that led to some baskets," Connor said of the late first half run. "They are a good team and we needed that run to get on a little roll."
The Griffins shot 60.8% from the field in the game and scored 42 points in the paint. They overcame 2-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc by collecting nine offensive rebounds and posting 14 second chance points. The Griffins also took care of the basketball with only six turnovers while recording 25 assists and 31 made field goals.
"To get 25 assists on 31 field goals in pretty phenomenal," Connor said. "We have been doing that all year so it's just another good performance by our guys."
Ben Walker scored a career high 28 points to lead all scorers in the game. He shot 11-of-13 from the field while collecting six rebounds and making 6-of-7 free throw attempts. Jeramie Hopson matched his season high with 15 points while distributing a career best nine assists. Weston Anderson and Conner Nielsen finished with 10 points apiece.
"In the second half we dumped the ball into Walker and he just dominated," Connor commented about his junior forward.
The Westminster bench added nine points from Michael Stockton and eight more from Tanner Gregory. Stockton scored all nine of his points in the second half and added four assists. Gregory got his eight points in the first 20 minutes, three times hitting on 15-foot jumpers. The Griffins reserves outscored the Rocky bench 17-10 in the game.
EJ Ross led Rocky with 23 points behind 7-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Anthony Allen added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Rocky shot 54.3% from the field as a team while making 10 three-pointers.
"Although they shot a good percentage, I though we kept them out of rhythm and that was our goal defensively," Connor said.
Westminster will now host the championship game for the second consecutive season. This year they will face Montana Western after they escaped a 60-59 affair with Montana State-Northern on Friday night. The top two seeds from the regular season will tipoff at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 8 in the Behnken Field House.
"We are excited to get to play on Monday and get our students back," Connor stated of the championship game. "The game is going to be tough and we are going to have to be ready. It will be a good game."
