Box Score
Westmont Men's Basketball opened Golden State Athletic Conference play with a 79-70 home loss to eighth-ranked Concordia (8-0, 2-0) on Thursday night at Murchison Gymnasium. Matt LeDuc led the Warriors in scoring with 19 points and Blake Bender recorded a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds. LeDuc also contributed five rebounds to the Warrior cause while Dan Rasp added 14 points and six rebounds.

"I was just in the locker room with our guys," said Westmont Head Coach John Moore after the game, "and they are an angry bunch. They are frustrated because they feel like they let a game slip away." Down 7-6 early in the game, Rasp hit a jumper and Andrew Schmalbach (7 points, 4 assists) scored from beyond the arc to put the Warriors up 11-7. LeDuc then tipped in his own missed shot to complete the 7-0 run and give Westmont a 13-7 lead. The Eagles stormed back to take a 17-15 lead on a three-pointer by A.J. Gasporra (13 points), but Westmont (4-2, 0-1 GSAC) responded with another 7-0 run that was capped off with a traditional three-point play by Preston Branson. After Concordia tied the game again at 22 with 6:50 to play, Westmont put together a 9-2 run with seven points from LeDuc to claim a seven-point margin (31-24). By the time the first-half clock read 2:00, each team had added a field goal to the total. However, the Eagles closed out the half with a 10-2 run to give Concordia a 35-34 lead at the intermission.

"I thought the issue with tonight's game was in the first half when we had the seven-point lead," said Moore. "Here was Blake Bender with two fouls, Dan Rasp with two fouls, John Miller with three fouls, and Even Haines in street clothes (the result of an injury). So your three post guys are in foul trouble and Concordia is attacking us. We were trying to fight back with our post guys being on the bench." Foul trouble plagued the Warriors throughout the game with Bender and LeDuc each eventually fouling out of the game. "Danny got his early fourth foul which put him on the bench for a good part of the second half," noted Moore. Concordia gradually built upon its lead in the second half, extending the margin to 12 points (58-46) with twelve minutes remaining in regulation. Westmont slowly cut into the advantage and pulled to within four points (70-66) with 2:54 to play. But that was as close as the Warriors would get.

"Concordia is a very good team," said Moore. "They will probably be a top-five team next week when the polls come out. We feel as though we are going to continue to get better and that we are going to be a team that competes with Concordia and the other top two or three teams in our league. "We played well in parts. We are a good team now but I think we are ready to become a great team. Good teams might lose games like this; great teams win games like this. We're ready to find ways to win games like this." Despite the loss, Moore saw a good deal that makes him optimistic about the future. "Matt may have had one of the best games of his career," said the coach. "Blake Bender is having a fabulous start to his junior year. When Andrew and Danny have the kind of games that they have had in the past and Blake has the kind of games he has had recently, I think we are going to turn into more than a good team. We are going to turn into a team that can be very special." [box score]