By Christy Cain
(IRVINE, Calif.) It was an unusually rough night for the Westmont men's basketball team (15-8, 7-3 GSAC) as they traveled down to Irvine, Calif. to play #13 Concordia (19-4, 8-2 GSAC). Despite a very solid first half, the men were not able to close the deal and ended up losing the game by a final score of 79-62.
Even though it was a packed gym tonight for the Eagle's Homecoming basketball game, the Warriors took the court with confidence and determination. With a motto of "silence the crowd" the Westmont men went to work and were quite productive for the first twenty minutes of the matchup. Going into halftime, both teams were shooting at a 48 percent clip, which kept the score within two points at the end of the first (32-34).
"I thought we played really well in the first half. We executed well and looked like we were going to take a nice lead going into halftime. In the last two or three minutes of the first half we had have some slip ups, but overall we played well," commented head coach John Moore." Our whole mantra was 'silence the crowd'. I thought we did a good job of that in the first, but in the second half they erupted on us."
Unfortunately, the Warriors were not able to carry over their high execution into the final twenty minutes of the game. Unlike the first half, the Warriors were missing opportunities and turned the ball over multiple times. As the clock wound down, the point differential only grew between the Eagles and the Warriors.
"In the second half we missed free throws and turned the ball over," reflected Moore. "When you are on the road, that is a recipe for disaster. When you do that, and you are as young as we are, things start to fall apart a little more than they should."
The Warriors were 11-23 from the field in the second and only sunk 2-9 from outside of the arc in the final 20 minutes. The most surprising aspect of the game may have been their free-throw shooting. The Warriors hold a 63.4 cumulative team free throw percentage on the season, but tonight they went 9-21 from the line which calculates out to 42.9 percent as a team.
Westmont had two players in double digits in tonight's game. Cory Blau put 13 points on the board while Daniel Carlin had 12.
"We have not had this kind of experience in quite a while so it was unusual for us. We are calling it an anomaly rather than a pattern," concluded Moore.
The Warriors, now 15-8 overall and 7-3 in GSAC, will have one week of practice until they head to Santa Clarita to take on The Masters College on Saturday February 7 at 7:30 p.m.
