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Natalie Murrio, Kennedy Arison
Jason Kapusta
54
Winner Westminster (PA) WES 9-6,7-4 PAC
50
Bethany (WV) BET 9-7,7-4 PAC
Winner
Westminster (PA) WES
9-6,7-4 PAC
54
Final
50
Bethany (WV) BET
9-7,7-4 PAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Westminster (PA) WES 14 9 16 15 54
Bethany (WV) BET 18 12 13 7 50

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Titans earn gritty road win against Bethany

BETHANY, W.Va.--The Westminster College women's basketball team pocketed a 54-50 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) victory at Bethany College Saturday afternoon at Joe Kurey Memorial Court inside Hummel Field House.

Westminster ran its season record to 9-6 overall and 7-4 in league play. Bethany fell to 9-7 overall and 7-4 in the PAC. Saturday's win was Westminster's fourth-straight in Bethany. 

The 54 points scored were the lowest total in a Westminster victory since winning 54-50 at Bethany Dec. 13, 2022. 

Fifth-year Natalie Murrio (Pittsburgh, Pa., Brentwood) paced all scorers with 21 points. She finished 8-of-18 from the floor and went 5-of-7 from the free throw line. She added five rebounds, three blocked shots and a steal. Saturday was Murrio's fifth game this season scoring 20 or more points. Freshman Kennedy Arison (Medina, Ohio, Akron Hoban) added 12 points in 25 bench minutes. She made all four of her free throw attempts. Graduate student Camden Hergenrother (Salem, Ohio, Cardinal Mooney) added nine points, seven rebounds and six assists. Senior Katie Fitzpatrick (Cumberland Center, Maine, Greely) chipped in with seven points and five rebounds in 11 reserve minutes. She finished 3-of-4 from the floor. 

Ashleigh Wheeler led Bethany with 11 points and five rebounds. Sophie Morey added a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double. 

Trailing 18-14 with just over a minute left in the first, back-to-back layups by Murrio and Hergenrother helped cut the Bison lead to four, 18-14, heading into the second. Murrio scored seven of the Titans' 14 first quarter points.

Down by six, 25-19, with under four minutes to go in the second, Arison knocked down a pair of free throws to cut Bethany's lead to two, 25-23, with 2:36 remaining in the half. The Bison scored the final five points of the half and entered the break leading by seven, 30-23. Bethany held a 14-7 edge in first half bench scoring, with Morey totaling nine points on 4-of-6 shooting. Murrio had 12 first half points. The Titans made 11 of their 13 free throw attempts in the first half. Westminster was limited to just 2-of-12 shooting in the second quarter.

A 10-0 scoring run three minutes into the third was kickstarted by a Murrio layup and capped by a three-point play by Fitzpatrick that gave Westminster a 36-35 lead with 2:31 left in the quarter. Arison drilled her second three-pointer of the period with six seconds to play that trimmed Bethany's lead to four, 43-39, going into the fourth. The Bison led by as many as 11 in the third.

Morey split a pair of free throws with just under seven minutes to play in the fourth that upped Bethany's lead to seven, 48-41. Westminster strung together an 11-2 scoring run and grabbed a 52-50 lead on Fitzpatrick's bucket with under a minute to go in regulation before Hergenrother hit a pair of late free throws to secure the four-point conference win. The Titans outscored the Bison 15-7 in the fourth. 

Westminster's stingy defensive effort limited Bethany, the PAC's top three-point field goal shooting team, to just 2-of-22 (.091) shooting. The Bison entered the game averaging 9.4 made three-pointers a game. 

The Titans shot 33.3 percent (18-54) from the floor and went 15-of-18 (.833) from the free throw line. Bethany finished with a 38-30 edge on the glass, which included 18 offensive rebounds. Westminster's bench outscored Bethany's reserves 13-1 in the second half. 

Westminster will travel to Waynesburg University on Wednesday, Jan. 17. Tipoff at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
 
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