Westmont’s women’s basketball team wins Regular Season Championship

By RON SMITH WESTMONT SPORTS WRITER

In the final regular season game of the 2022-23 season, the seniors led the way to an 81-44 Golden State Athletic Conference victory by the No. 5-ranked Westmont women’s basketball team (23-2, 16-2 GSAC) over Jessup (14-13, 9-9).

Stefanie Berberabe produced her third triple-double of the season and the fourth of her career, tallying 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Fellow senior Sydney Brown notched a double-double of 13 points and 18 rebounds, 11 of which were from the offensive glass. It was Brown’s fifth double-double of the season. Combined with her performance against Menlo on Thursday, Brown collected 35 rebounds in the final two games of the regular season.

“Our seniors have been leading the way in so many unseen ways all year such as the little things they do, their commitment, and their choice to stay here for a fifth year,” said Westmont’s head coach Kirsten Moore. “Both of them have had such a passion to teach the ‘Warrior Way’ to the next generation of Warriors. That has been their biggest goal. Obviously, they wanted to win another championship and to be able to clinch on senior night is pretty special for them.”

With the win, Westmont claimed sole possession of the GSAC Regular Season Championship, the No. 1 seed in this week’s GSAC Tournament, and an automatic berth into the NAIA National Championship Tournament.

“No one is more deserving than those two of any accolades that come their way,” said Moore of Berberabe and Brown. “It is so fun to see that when you are about the right things, the results follow. That is what we saw on the court tonight — both in how they played and how their teammates played for them. They have loved their teammates well and you could see the amount of love that our team played with them.

“For Stef to finish with a triple double was fitting, in the sense that she does everything on the court. As the senior introductions mentioned, at five-foot three, she is in our top-five all time in offensive rebounds (257). Not to mention, she is our career leading scorer (1,658 points), second in assists (581) and second in steals (316). She has done everything here, and she is such a wellrounded player that the tripledouble is super meaningful on Senior Night.

“With Syd rebounding pretty much every shot that was missed out there, I’m not sure how there were enough rebounds left for Stef to get 10. Syd has learned a knack to go get the ball and not be deterred from that. I am proud of her toughness and aggressiveness.” Brown’s 807 career rebounds ranks third in the Warrior record books.

“A third senior, who wasn’t on the floor, has been so impactful and that is Ebun Kalejaiye,” noted Moore. “She has been the epitome of what a servant leader looks like. She has primarily been a manager on our team, but stepped in during COVID and became a roster player that led our team in assistto-turnover ratio at 5-1.

“She did everything. Her attitude of being willing to do whatever the team needs is contagious and admirable and has taught our team so much.

“Those three are special young women and it was fun to be able to cut down nets on their Senior Night.”

Of course, Berberabe and Brown weren’t the only two Warriors on the floor. Laila Saenz went seven of 11 from beyond the arc to lead the Warriors in scoring with 21 points. Bailey Fong added another 13 points, nine of which came courtesy of the long-range shot.

For the game, Westmont made 15 of 34 3-point attempts, collecting more than 50% of their scoring total from long distance.

The Warriors outrebounded Jessup 49-26, with 25 of Westmont’s boards coming on the offensive end of the court. They also took care of the ball, committing just five turnovers while producing nine steals.

The GSAC Tournament, which will be held at Menlo in Atherton, gets underway on Thursday with fifth-seeded The Master’s (169, 10-8) taking on number four Hope International (21-7, 13-5) in a quarterfinal match-up. Thursday’s other quarterfinal game will see third-seeded Menlo (19-8, 135) facing off against #6 Arizona Christian (14-14, 9-9).

On Friday, Westmont will take on the winner of the fourfive game, beginning at 5 p.m. Vanguard (21-5, 14-4), the tournament’s No. 2 seed, will play the winner between Arizona Christian and Menlo in the tournament’s other semifinal game.

Saturday’s championship game will be played at 6 p.m.

Ron Smith is the sports information director at Westmont College. email: sports@newspress.com