Fourteen of Westminster's first 16 points came in the paint and the Griffins held a 22-6 edge in that category by halftime. At game's end, Westminster had racked up 46 points in the paint compared to 26 for the Patriots. It helped them in holding off Cumberlands as it drilled one 3-pointer after another to stay in the game.

Stosich came up with some huge baskets to keep the Griffins one step ahead in the final minutes.

Cumberlands twice made late rallies to try and turn momentum in its favor. Each time, Stosich came up with a couple of big plays to lift Westminster.

The Patriots first rallied from a four-point halftime deficit and grabbed a 45-43 lead on a basket from Josh Phillps with 12:57 left in the second half. Stosich scored a fastbreak layup to put the Griffins back in front and converted a 3-point play to make it 53-47 with 9:51 to play.

Cumberlands rallied again over the next few minutes and cut the lead to one at 61-60 when Phillips swiped the ball from Jordan Jacobs and took it in for a fastbreak layup with 1:04 remaining.Once again, Stosich came through offensively. The senior forward answered with his own layup with 41 seconds to put Westminster up three. From there, Jacobs drained four free throws in the final seconds to secure the victory.

The Griffins will now face Columbia (Mo.) today at 5 p.m. in Kansas City.

Westminster women

At Jackson, Tenn., a prolonged shooting drought doomed the Westminster women's chances to upset the defending NAIA champions.

The Griffins did not score a field goal for six minutes in the second half, allowing Vanguard to overtake them with two big scoring runs and deal Westminster an 80-71 second-round loss in the NAIA women's basketball tournament at Oman Arena on Friday morning.

Elisa Leader scored 17 points to lead the Griffins. Alexis Tucker added 16 and Dani Evans chipped in 13. Leader and Evans combined to make seven 3-pointers for Westminster (27-7).

The Griffins were undone by poor shooting. They shot 22-of-64 from the field (34.4 percent) and 9-of-32 from three-point range (28.1 percent). The Lions (31-3), on the other hand, shot 49 percent from the field and made 32-of-40 free throws.

Things started out well enough for Westminster. Leader scored on three of her first four attempts from long range to help the Griffins stake out a 19-15 lead with 8:50 left in the first half.

Vanguard rallied to tie things up when Lauren Gregory scored two straight layups — the second coming off a turnover. The Lions finally took a 23-21 lead on a pair of free throws from Diana Neves with 6:19 remaining before halftime.

Westminster did a good job of keeping pace with Vanguard while the team's shots fell from the perimeter. Evans hit one 3-pointer to give the Griffins a 33-32 halftime lead and buried another to cap a 7-0 run that put them up 44-41 with 12:45 left in the second half.

But the Griffins did not score another field goal until Evans drilled another shot from long range six minutes later. That opened the door for the Lions to take control of the game. Starting with a 3-pointer from Rachel Copeland and ending with a layup and two free throws from Bridgette Reyes, Vanguard used a 16-4 run to take a 57-48 lead with 7:49 left.

After Evans broke the ice with her 3-pointer, the Lions answered with a 13-3 run — capped off with a three-point play from Gregory — to make it 70-54 with 4:11 to go in regulation.