Micaela Hanning leans in against Lisa Kiefer (Photo by Caitlin Lowe).
Micaela Hanning leans in against Lisa Kiefer (Photo by Caitlin Lowe).

Women's Basketball

Vanguard Moves to Championship Game with 73-57 Win

The Lions top Westmont and will meet Azusa Pacific in Saturday's 4:30 title game.

SAN DIEGO—No. 1 seed Vanguard let from start to finish to top No. 4 Westmont 73-59 on Friday night at Golden Gymnasium.

That PacWest tournament semifinal win vaults the Lions into their first PacWest title game in their first try. They will take on No. 3 seed Azusa Pacific on Saturday at 4:30 pm.

The Lions will take a 23-5 record into that match-up. Westmont’s successful season comes to a close at 21-9.

The Lions jumped out to a 5-0 and 12-4 lead in the first quarter. They would lead by as many as ten points in the opening period before settling for a 23-15 margin.

As would be typical in the game, Westmont battled back to get as close as six points in the second quarter, but the Lions took a 31-23 lead into the halftime locker room.

The Warriors cut the lead to four (31-27) on a Lisa Kiefer basket in the opening moments of the second half. But Vanguard quickly answered with a 13-0 run. The PacWest regular season champs would take a 51-34 lead into the final ten minutes of play.

In the fourth, Westmont would get as close as seven points (61-54), but the Lions salted away their free throws down the stretch to put the game away.

The Lions played the game without their starting point guard, the PacWest Player of the Year Kaylee Byon. But freshman Micaela Hanning stepped into Byon’s shoes big time with a career game of 25 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Hanning controlled the pace of the Vanguard offense with the ball in her hands and scored on a variety of driving, twisting shots.

Emma Schaaf added 18 for VU and Jaryn Madsen had 11.

Westmont had three players foul out in the game in Kiefer, Moemie Bariteau and Jazmyn Shipp. Bariteau fouled out in the wanning moments and left the game with 19 points. Kiefer had eight points and three rebounds and Shipp finished with nine points.

Tomorrow’s title game will be the third match-up this season between Azusa Pacific and Vanguard. The two squads split their meetings heading into this championship bout. It is Vanguard’s first PacWest title game and Azusa Pacific’s last, as they will be moving to Division III next year.