Box Score
Westmont Men's Basketball (21-9) overcame a seven-point deficit at the half (37-30) to upset #15 Arizona Christian (22-8) in the first round of the Golden State Athletic Conference Championship. The Warriors' defense was tenacious in the second half as Westmont outscored the Firestorm 44-28.
Westmont advances to the semifinals tomorrow night where it will match up with top-seeded and third ranked Biola (27-3).
"I loved how tough we were," said Westmont head coach John Moore. "Sometimes it is about how hardnosed you are. That usually shows up on the defensive end and I thought we defended in the second half as well as we have in a long, long time.
"Arizona Christian is so good offensively," continued the coach. "Our goal was to hold them under 75 points. Even though we were disappointed at half time that we didn't have the lead, we knew that we were on the right pace. The last time they nearly scored 100 point against us."
Down 44-34 with 13:40 remaining in the second half, Westmont produced a 17-3 run to go up 51-47 with 7:35 to go. Olisa Nwachie scored the go-ahead bucket on a jumper in the paint with 8:15 to play. Sam Bentz followed that with a three-pointer to complete the run.
The Firestorm battled back and took a brief 55-54 lead on a three-pointer by Brandon Newman. However, Britton Williams answered back with a jumper that put Westmont up 56-55. A pair of free throws by Sean McDonnell padded Westmont lead before Andy Sessions hit a jumper in the paint to pull Arizona Christian within one (58-57).
McDonnell scored again from the charity stripe, but the Firestorm's Sharif Watson made a jumper to tie the score at 59 with 3:58 to play.
Once more, Westmont defense rose to the occasion, holding Arizona Christian scoreless over the next three minutes. In the meantime, Westmont scored 10 points – a pair of free throws by Sean Harman, a jumper by Bentz, a layup and two free throws by Cory Blau and a jumper by McDonnell.
Arizona Christian scored six points in the final minute of play on two three-pointers by Mishima Gray, but Westmont nailed five of six free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
Aiding the Warriors victory was a 26 of 34 free throw performance.
"We wanted to get to the free throw line," noted Moore. "In the first half we did a poor job of attaching the basket. In the second half we did a much better job and that is what got us to the free throw line where we were able to get free points with the clock stopped."
Westmont was led in scoring by Blau who tallied 18 points, four rebounds and four assists. McDonnell added 16 points and four boards while Bentz contributed 13 points. Harman and Anderson added eight points each and Anderson led all Westmont rebounders with six.
"What a heroic effort on the part of Hayden Anderson who hasn't been in a uniform in a month and some," said Moore. "He was able to play 29 minutes. He's like superman. I am in awe of the minutes he was able to play and the play he was able to give us. His defensive performance was top rate."
Anderson suffered a dislocated elbow on January 26 at Vanguard and has been sidelined ever since. The Warriors learned just two days ago that he had been cleared to play.
"Olisa only played nine minutes, but he played a loud nine minutes with how tough he was," said Moore.
Nwachie's, whose minutes were limited due to foul trouble, scored four points and pulled down three boards.
"We have our work cut out for us against the conference champ that hasn't lost in nine games," said Moore about tomorrow night's semifinal. "With such a short turnaround, it's going to be a great challenge for us. With that said, we are really up for it. We feel like the last two times we played against Biola, we didn't show up in the way we are capable of. We think we are a much better team than Biola has seen."
The Warriors and Eagles are scheduled to tip-off at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night.
