By Christy Cain
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) The Westmont men's basketball team certainly had their dancing shoes on this evening as they took the court against top-seeded, fellow Golden State Athletic Conference team Hope International in the semifinal round of the NAIA Men's National Championship. Thankfully, when the clock struck 0:00, this Cinderella team did not turn into pumpkins. Instead, for the first time in Westmont College history, your men's basketball team is taking the biggest stage of all to play for a chance at a NAIA National Championship Title.
"First of all, I have to start with Hope International," opened teary eyed head coach John Moore. "They are an incredible team and we are very fortunate. Every time we took a lead, they came back and made big shot after big shot. They hit a basket at the very end and it looked like it might have won the game for them. But we put the ball in our best mans' hand and Cory Blau had no hesitation. He buried that shot."
Coming into this game, the odds were once again stacked against the Westmont men. Hope International has not only owned the GSAC all season, but held the top spot in the NAIA national rankings. They are a squad of great talent with a deep bench. The Royals defeated Westmont both times in regular season conference play and were looking to strike them out for good.
But you know what people always say? It is hard to beat a team three times. And tonight, that proved to be true.
Hope took a quick 2-0 lead eight seconds into the game by sinking a pair of free throws after a foul by Daniel Carlin. To have a notch in the big man's belt that early on was not ideal, but four minutes later the Warriors were able to tie the game up at 8-8 and never looked back. From there, the Warriors ran a very well balanced and evenly distributed offense all night long. Not only did they move the ball quickly and efficiently all night long, defensively they went after Hope International's players like their season depended on it.
Because it did.
"Our motto all season has been 'be relentless' and our identity statement is 'we are relentless, we sacrifice for each other, we go to war together…we are Warriors," explained Moore. "I like the middle part where it says 'we sacrifice for each other' because I think you saw that out there on the court tonight."
When you are playing your fourth game in five days, it pays to have a deep bench. Thankfully the Warriors have developed enough depth on the bench this season to keep players fresh throughout the 40 minutes of play. "I don't think we took a single play off," remarked John Moore. "I thought we did a nice job substituting and keeping fresh guys on the court. Britton Williams, Cory Blau and Jerry Karczewski all took care of the ball the whole game. Daniel Carlin unfortunately fouled out, but he had some incredible plays out there as well."
With 3:07 left on the clock and a score of 62-59, Carlin earned his fifth and final foul of the game to send him to the bench. Without hesitation, Sam Bentz subbed in and added a few more minutes to his 14 minutes of play. The Royals went on a bit of a run to get a few points closer to a tie. With a little over a minute to play, Bentz went to the line due to a foul from the Royals' Austin Sanford. Bentz missed his first shot, but stepped back up with full confidence and nailed the second one, putting the Warriors ahead 68-65. "Sam's second free throw was the cap tonight. He missed the first shot, but made the second and that was very, very important for us," explained Moore.
With 16 seconds to play, a Royal set of free throws and a jumper from GSAC player of the year, Kenny Morgan, gave Hope a mere one point lead….and every Warrior fan a near heart attack. With single digits remaining on the clock, the Warriors pushed the ball up the court and, in classic Cory Blau fashion, he dribbled to the top of the key and made a pull up jumper to put Westmont up by one.
"Cory made his shot and we then had to defend Kenny to make sure he didn't get to the basket. He is a game changer and we knew we needed to be on him," explained Moore. As expected, the Royals put there hope in Kenny Morgan who put up a literal last second jumper from right outside the key. The entire arena held their breath as the ball left his hand…bounced off the rim once…twice…and dropped to the right of the net to give the Warriors a 70-69 win and a berth to the Championship game.
While tonight was a total team effort, the Warriors were led by Daniel Carlin who earned a team high of 16 points, five rebounds and one blocked shot. Blau tallied a total of 13 points while Hayden Anderson and Sam Bentz each walked away with 10 points.
"Our senior leadership from Nate Marsing and Daniel Carlin was evident. Nate has led us defensively throughout this tournament and will continue to do so. Sometimes the unsung heroes are the guys who don't score a lot of points but play tenacious defense," raved Moore. Tomorrow will be the official end to the three senior's story here at Westmont. They have made it as far as they can this season and will battle it out one last time tomorrow night in hopes of retiring as national champions.
"This team has been a surprise. This team was 7-6 at the beginning of the season. They have been a team that has had firm belief in each other. They have been a team that is incredibly unselfish. They have no doubt and absolutely no fear," said Moore.
"There are so many emotions that are flowing through my body, my heart and head. I am just incredibly thankful to Westmont for taking a chance on me so many years ago. I was a guy, as a player, who wasn't a believer. They let me come on to the team and grow into a man of faith who fully believes."
"I am really, really grateful for all that Westmont stands for. As an institution we have never failed to stand firm in who we are. It is an incredible privilege to work at my alma matter. To have people like Gayle Beebe, Mark Sargent and Dave Odell in my corner is an incredible honor," closed out Moore.
This has been a week of career milestones for head coach John Moore. Tonight marked the second time he has coached a team in the semifinal round of the Tournament. Tomorrow night, for the first time in his 27 years of coaching, John Moore will be playing for a National Title.
This squad has quickly become the Cinderella team of the NAIA. In the beginning, people had never heard of us and the ones who had, counted us out because we are young. We were labeled 'inexperienced'. Since we were seeded 21, we were overlooked by many.
The men fought to get into the tournament, and they have fought longer than any other team to stay in this tournament. They have overcome adversity and rallied to upset some of the top ranked teams in the nation. They are a textbook version of a Cinderella story.
But Cinderella is for dreamers, championships are for believers. Thankfully, the Westmont Warriors have never stopped believing.
Besides, Cinderella wore glass slippers, Warriors wear Nikes.
