Box Score
Senior guard Andrew Schmalbach scored 15 points to help lead Westmont Men's Basketball (19-7, 11-6 GSAC) to a 62-46 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over Point Loma Nazarene (8-18, 5-18) on Senior Night at Murchison Gymnasium. The Warriors have now won five in a row in their quest to qualify for the NAIA National Championships. With three games left in the conference schedule, Westmont is tied with Azusa Pacific for fourth place in the GSAC standings. Both teams are one game behind Fresno Pacific which is 12-5. The Warriors will host Fresno Pacific on Tuesday, February 23 and host Azusa Pacific in the final game of the regular season on Monday, March. 1. In between those two games, the Warriors will travel to Vanguard on Saturday, February 27.

"Andrew was great tonight," said Westmont Head Coach John Moore. "He was ready to play and very focused. He was ready to shoot and shot well from the three-point line. He moved ahead of Chad Kammerer on the three-point field goals list and into third place. He is just 15 points away from the career 1000 points mark. I hope he can get that against Fresno Pacific." The Warriors trailed much of the low-scoring first half and entered the locker room down 22-21. "It looked more like a mid-December versus a mid-February game," said Moore. "Sometimes you have to have these grind out games. After a big emotional victory on Tuesday and back-to-back road wins, I thought we looked a little fatigued more, emotionally more than physically, in the first half particularly. Point Loma probably deserves a lot of credit for that."

Twelve seconds into the final frame, junior forward Blake Bender nailed a jumper to put Westmont up 23-22 and the Warriors never relinquished the lead again. Schmalbach followed Bender's jumper with a jumper of his own. Next, senior point guard Chris Jackson (4 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds) found forward Dan Rasp (6 points) open on a fast break and the junior slammed the ball through the net on a dunk that gave Westmont a 27-22 lead with 17:14 remaining in regulation. The Sea Lions cut the lead to one on two free throws by James Hancock (10 points, 4 rebounds) and a jumper by Rhett Beal (12 points, 4 rebounds), but the Warriors responded with an 11-2 run to take a double-digit advantage (38-28) with 12:58 to play. Beal narrowed it to an eight-point margin with a bucket on the next Sea Lion possession, but John Miller (8 points, 3 rebounds) answered with a jumper and Matt LeDuc (4 points, 6 rebounds) tipped in a shot by Preston Branson to give Westmont a 12 point lead (42-30). The Sea Lions never came within single digits again. Though the Warriors shot just 37.5% in the first half (9 of 24), their defense held until the Warriors could turn things around in the second half with 50% field goal accuracy in the second half (15 of 30). The Warriors held the Sea Lions to just 36.4% from the field over the course of the game (16 of 44).

"To hold a team to 16 field goals in a game is a sign of great defense," said Moore. "Defensively we played the percentages. Blake Bender is such a good defender for us right now. He did a phenomenal job for us on Rhett Beal." Bender scored 10 points for the Warriors and pulled down five boards. Preston Branson went four of eight from the field and scored nine points. Before the game, the Warriors honored five seniors: point guard Chris Jackson, guard Andrew Schmalbach, guard Jared Madrazo, guard Matt LeDuc, and center John Miller. "I told my players beforehand, 'You will see a coach with red eyes and tears on his cheeks after the senior night ceremony'," said Moore. "I was pretty emotional. They are a special group of guys who will be sorely missed. I hope to still be with them for a large portion of the season (emphasis on 'large'). We'd like to get to Kansas City and I think we took a step this week in that direction." [box score]