BOX SCORE
SAN DIEGO - Bill Wesphal picked up his 500th win as a college coach after his Sea Lions defeated Holy Names 71-65 Friday night in Golden Gymnasium.
Crissa Jackson led PLNU with 26 points, 12 of those points coming at the free throw line.
I've been at it a long time and at a lot of different levels,” said Westphal, who coached men's teams at Grand Canyon, Western Washington and Occidental before taking over the PLNU women's program in 1999. “Five hundred is a lot of wins. The girls and the guys I coached are more important than the wins and the people I worked with made it enjoyable. It's been a lot of good times.”
Coach's 500th win wasn't an easy one. The Sea Lions (4-4) were without starters Brianna Colon and Kiley Berlinsky and Holy Names made matters worse by battling for the entire 40 minutes. In fact, the Hawks went into the half in front 28-23 and led by as much as 11 points with 14 minutes to play in the second half.
Point Loma fought back and slowly clawed their way back into the non-conference tilt. Kaitlyn Trotter made a free throw to stop the Hawk momentum at the 13:40 mark. Callie Rhoads and Jackson each made three pointers to sandwich another Trotter free throw which cut the deficit to three. Another trey by Rhoads capped an 11-0 run and evened the score at 45-all.
PLNU's run took less than three minutes. A Holy Names foul and a technical at 10:15 put Jackson at the line four times. She made all four to put the Sea Lions ahead by three.
Unfortunately, Trotter, PLNU's top scorer and rebounder, went down due with an injury at that time after missing on a fast break layup and would not return.
The Hawks (4-8) caught up with the Sea Lions less than a minute later, but Loma would be back ahead soon after another Rhoads three and buckets by Andrea Campbell and Jackson. The Sea Lions never looked back, though it took a steady effort at the stripe as ten of the team's last points came on free throws.
“When Kaitlyn went down, I told the girls, 'we have to win this game for her,'” said Westpahl. “They found a way to win without our leading scorer. I am please with the win and the way the girls responded.”
Neither side shot well: 38.5 percent for the Hawks, 35.3 percent for the Sea Lions. PLNU made 12 threes, though, and were 23-29 at the line. Holy Names was just 8-for-16 at the stripe.
Rhoads chipped in with 21 points, Trotter added 14 points and 10 rebounds before going down. Renee Crawford contributed eight points and two assists. Campbell scored five and blocked three shots. Jackson added seven boards, five assists and a steal to her statline.
Three Hawks scored in double figures led by 15 from Yesinia Garzon.
PLNU hosts William Jewell (MO) for a non-conference game Monday at noon.
