Box Score Senior forward Jason Ritchey turned in a career game (29 points, 12 rebounds) Saturday night as Westmont Men's Basketball (0-1) fell short in their 2013-14 season opener, losing 104-95 to La Sierra (1-0) in what was a fast-moving, overtime thriller in Riverside. "Jason Ritchey had the highlight of his Westmont tenure so far," offered Westmont head coach John Moore. "He had 19 points at the half (29 total), 12 rebounds, and played with great energy. He scored nine of our first 13 points and exploded out of the gate like a cannon." Ritchey's hot start, along with early points from senior forward C.J. Miller, who had the only other double-double for the Warriors, (12 points, 10 rebounds), sophomore guard Billy Keller (19 points, four assists), junior center Daniel Carlin (four points, six rebounds), and senior guard Mantas Drungys (seven points, 11 rebounds), propelled Westmont to a 12 point lead just six minutes in.
However, the Golden Eagles, led by senior guard Daveon Woods (35 points, six rebounds) would go on a 16-4 run over the next four minutes to tie the game at 24, about halfway through the first half. "We had a big lead early, and it looked like we were going to blow the game wide open," commented Moore. "However, we allowed the lead to dissipate on a streak of three-pointers. If you allow the momentum to shift, as we did, you're certainly going to give the other team new life." The Warriors did just that, as the Golden Eagles fought tooth and nail with Westmont and only trailed by three points at the half. Out of the half, the Warriors surged to an 11 point advantage with 10:51 left to play in regulation, but ultimately let the Golden Eagles fight their way back. As the time ticked down, the second half would prove to evolve into even more of a run-and-gun type of game, as both sides clambered to regain a lead over the other. The Warriors' Princeton Offense schematic never formulated, partially due to La Sierra's pace and aggressiveness.


"I think that we did play too fast, which was to (La Sierra's) advantage," offered Moore. "To give up over 100 points in game shows that. I thought our fast break was one of our positives, but once we got into our half-court offense, we played too quickly, and that didn't prove well for us." Late buckets by sophomore guard Kyle Gordon (12 points) and Keller kept the Warriors in the contest with less than three minutes to play. Gordon was also the only Warrior to assemble a positive assist to turnover ratio (1:0). The team as a whole committed 29 turnovers, while only distributing 14 assists. "In my opinion, Kyle also played the best game of his career," stated Moore. "He was very efficient and played within himself at a slower pace, and good things happened for him." However, the Warriors' most important two points were provided by Ritchey's game tying layup with 0.5 seconds remaining in the game. Ritchey's crucial basket that knotted the contest at 87 spawned from a back-door cut that capped off an assist from Keller during a sideline inbounds play. Even with the dramatic finish to regulation, Westmont was unable to find their offensive grove in overtime, as they were outscored 17-8 in extra time. Said Moore, "We needed to make layups and take care of the ball early, as well as to defend late, but we weren't able do those things."


Turnovers and inefficient free-throw shooting (17 for 31, .548 overall) also wreaked havoc on the Warriors. "I think that this is a team that is going to have some growing pains," expressed Moore. "When you miss as many free throws and layups as we missed, turn the ball over as many times as we did, outre bound a team by 21 (64 to 43) and still lose, and need to go to overtime to even try to win the game, that's not a sign of a very good start." The Warriors will look to make up for their (not so) slow start to the season this Friday, November 8 in their home opener against Southern Oregon. That game has a scheduled tip-off time of 7:30 p.m. inside Murchison Gymnasium.