Box Score

By Ron Smith

Westmont head coach John Moore found plenty to be pleased about as #12 Westmont Men's Basketball opened the season with an 88-45 win over Bethesda (4-3) on Friday night in Murchison Gymnasium.

"I really like the way we got everybody to play together and everybody to play hard together," reflected the coach. "We had 11 people play 10 or more minutes in the game and 10 play 13 minutes or more.

Sean McDonnell led the team in scoring with 13 points while also collecting nine rebounds. Jerry Karczewski and Cory Blau each tallied 12 points with Karczewski making four of five from beyond the arc and Blau sinking both of his attempts from the same distance.

As a team, the Warriors posted a 50.9 field goal percentage (29 of 57) including a 54.2 three-point percentage (13 of 24). Defensively, Westmont limited the Flames to a 29.2 percent field goal percentage including just four of 22 three-point attempts (18.2 percent).

I was proud of the way our defense performed against a team that had their way with a couple of good teams in Oregon," said Moore, referring to Bethesda's wins over Eastern Oregon (99-97) and College of Idaho (97-83) at the Eastern Oregon Tournament. "We outrebounded Bethesda 48-34 and got 15 offensive rebounds – hustle rebounds. And we got to the free throw line a lot, taking 20 more free throws than they did."

Up 10-8 with 13 minutes to go in the first half. Westmont put together a 14-0 run over the next five minutes to pull ahead of Bethesda for good. Samuel Bentz (10 points) assisted first Noah Blanton and then Hayden Anderson for the first two field goals of the run before Britton Williams assisted Max Hudgins on a three-pointer.

Anderson then scored on a lay-up to put the Warriors up 19-8. A three-point bucket by Stefan Inouye made it 22-8 before a layup by Bentz completed the run.

"I was really proud of two guys in particular," said Moore. "Stefan has not played a lot in his career, but I thought he played a solid, consistent game. Noah had seven points and nine rebounds. It was really impressive from those two guys.

"I thought Hayden and Britton played with great energy," continued Moore. "Hayden has a bad foot, so we tried to limit his minutes but he was very productive with his ten minutes. I really enjoyed Brit's energy. He got to the free throw line and had nine assists against just two turnovers. I was really encouraged by his play."

By halftime, the Warriors were up by 20 (34-14) and would extend the margin to 43 by the end of the game.

Next week, the Warriors will host News Release in an exhibition on Wednesday before heading off to The Master's University over the weekend for games against Arizona schools Benedictine (2-1) and Embry-Riddle (2-2).