FULTON, MO – The Principia women's basketball team pulled off one of the biggest wins in program history in the SLIAC conference semifinals on Thursday night at #1 seed Westminster College. Trailing by 14 midway through the third quarter, the Panthers closed the game by outscoring the Blue Jays 42-10 to claim the upset victory, 63-45.
The Blue Jays came in as the top seed with a 17-1 record in conference play. They have a high-powered offense led by three-time SLIAC Player of the Year, Annette Ramirez, who became the conference's all-time career scoring leader this season with over 2000 points in her four-year career. In the teams' previous two meetings this season, Westminster scored 88 points in each of their two wins over Principia, so the Panthers knew they had to play great defense to have a chance to win, and they did just that.
Principia had a slow start on offense and did not make their first basket until six minutes into the game when they were already down 9-0. They quickly made it 9-6, and by the end of the first quarter the Panthers had tied the game at 14-14. The Principia offense hit another wall to begin the second quarter and again did not score for the first six minutes. The Panthers would only score three points in the quarter, but held Westminster to just ten as they went into halftime down 24-17.
The first five minutes of the third quarter continued a similar trend as the Panthers struggled to score and fell behind by 14 points at 35-21. However, Principia completely flipped a switch in this moment and was a totally different team over the final 15 minutes of the game. Almost every offensive possession for the Panthers turned into points, while the defense piled up stop after stop and shut down a Westminster squad that could not buy a bucket. Up until the final minute of the game, Principia went on an incredible 41-5 run to put the game out of reach and stamp their ticket to the championship game for the first time in 18 years.
In a true team win, Principia had balanced scoring with four players in double digits. Their leading scorer was
Trinniti Matthews with 15 points, while
Lamiya Terrell had 13, and
Ariana Williams and
Genesis Santiago each finished with 11. Matthews, Terrell, and Williams led the way on the defensive end as well, combining 11 steals and 7 blocks between the three of them.
This will mark the program's fourth time in the conference finals. Before their last trip in 2007, the Panthers also made the finals in 1995 and 1996, but the team has never won a SLIAC championship. The 2024-25 Panthers will go for history and a berth to the national tournament when they face Webster Uniiversity on Saturday at 1:00 pm back on the campus of Westminster College in Fulton. Come cheer on the Principia women in one of the biggest games in program history!
