SALT LAKE CITY – The Regis University women's basketball team embarked on the front end of its three-game road trip on Friday at Behnken Field House, where it fell to Westminster College (Utah), 69-64, despite a promising fourth-quarter, 12-0 run to take a brief lead.  

"We were ready to play and played an excellent defensive first half," said Regis University Head Women's Basketball Coach Molly Marrin. "We were also more confident shooting the ball and are getting better at reading different defenses. Westminster is a senior-laden team that is well-balanced and very efficient offensively.

"Despite the loss to a very good team, I am proud of our growth and how hard we competed for 40 minutes. We are a team that is still finding our identity, and I believe our best basketball is ahead of us."
 
How It Happened: With the Griffins leading, 63-59, with 2:20 remaining before the final buzzer, a layup by senior forward Sarah McGinley extended Westminster's lead to 65-59, which proved to be enough to defeat the visiting Rangers.
 
Regis senior guard Tashika Burrell cut into WC's lead on a layup with less than a second reading on the clock, trimming the RU deficit to five, 69-64, while marking the contest's final basket.
 
Senior point guard Mariah Martin broke a scoreless deadlock 1:31 into the game to give the Griffins a 2-0 lead on a pair of free throws.
 
Freshman guard Erin Fry then responded with a jumper to tie the game, 2-2, with 6:59 remaining in the opening frame, and Burrell proceeded to give the Rangers their first lead on a trey at the 6:16 mark of the first quarter for a 5-2 score.
 
Westminster later assembled a 6-0 run, kicked off by senior forward Hunter Krebs' layup with 4:00 to go in the first and concluded on Martin's go-ahead, tie-breaking jumper at the 2:53 mark of the first to give WC a 10-8 lead.
 
Another Martin jumper broke a tie with 1:05 left in the first to move the Griffins to a 16-14 advantage, which they took into the second quarter.  
 
Regis regained the lead during an 8-0 run, sparked by Burrell's 3-pointer 37 seconds into the second and capped off by senior forward Grace O'Neill's trey at the second quarter's 7:53 reading, which gave RU a 22-18 lead. Sophomore forward Morgan L. Smith's jumper caused the lead change during the run, 19-18, with 8:36 remaining in the second.
 
Following back-to-back jumpers by Martin with 1:02 and 38 seconds left, respectively, with the latter basket tying the game, 24-24, sophomore forward Sydney Speights answered with a jumper and gave the Rangers a 26-24 advantage.
 
However, with less than a second on the clock in the first half, redshirt junior guard Ashley Greenwood converted a pair of free throws to send both Regis and Westminster into halftime locked up at 26-26.
 
WC emerged from the break, building up the run it started at the end of the opening half, which eventually became a 7-0 run. The run ceased after McGinley scored on a jumper 1:21 into the third quarter to give the Griffins a five-point, 31-26 lead.
 
Westminster's lead grew to as high as eight in the third, 42-34, when Martin made a layup at the 4:21 mark of the third.
 
Down 50-43 with just 31 seconds to go in the third, senior forward Whitney Jacob hit both of her free-throw attempts to cut the RU deficit to five, 50-45.
 
Krebs then returned the WC advantage back to seven, 52-45, on a jumper with just 1 second left on the clock to close the third quarter.
 
The Rangers finally generated some much-needed momentum in the fourth in the form of a 12-0 run, which started on senior guard Emma Sterkel's 3-pointer at the 8:53 mark of the final quarter. Jacob tied the game, 54-54, on a layup with 5:41 left in regulation and gave Regis the lead on a trey, 57-54, at the fourth quarter's 5:05 mark to cap the run.
 
Unfortunately, the Griffins awoke with a lead-changing, 8-0 run that Krebs commenced on her go-ahead 3-pointer to give Westminster a slim 60-59 lead with 3:38 left before the final buzzer and stopped after McGinley's layup at the fourth quarter's 2:20 mark. The latter basket brought WC to the aforementioned 65-59 advantage.
 
Game Notes: Burrell scored a game-high 21 points to go along with six rebounds and a team-high three assists. Jacob earned a double-double of 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while recording two assists, a team-high two blocks, and a steal. O'Neill registered eight points, three rebounds, one assist, and a share of the game-high two steals.
 
Ultimately, the game was convincingly decided in the paint, where the Griffins outscored RU, 42-20. The Rangers were also outdone in bench points by a margin of 16-9.
 
Regis finished the game with a 25-for-72 (34.7 percent) result from the paint, a 9-for-24 (37.5 percent) showing from the arc, and a perfect 5-for-5 (100 percent) performance from the charity stripe. In comparison, Westminster ended the contest making 28 of 63 (44.4 percent) in the field, four of 11 (36.4 percent) from 3-point range, and nine of 11 (81.8 percent) at the free-throw line.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: RU drops to a 2-5 record overall and a 2-4 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play. The Rangers continue their road trip at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday at Brownson Arena, where they will take on Colorado Mesa (8-3, 8-3 RMAC).