By Zach DeMarcus
November 7, 2017
 
(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (3-0) defeated the Golden Eagles of La Sierra (0-3) this evening by a score of 81-70. The Warriors found 29 of their points from the free throw line – and went on to shoot 85% from the line (29-34).
 
"I think we just didn't play collectively well. There are certain guys who played well – we're still finding ourselves," said Westmont head coach John Moore. "Collectively, we just aren't as good as we need to be at this point – that's partially because we have so many new guys."
 
Senior captains, Jerry Karczewski and Sean Harman continue to play solid basketball for the Warriors. The two of them lead Westmont's scoring efforts, scoring 22 and 15 respectively.
 
Moore said, "Jerry and Sean are consistent and good. They do things that we need to have done."
 
Westmont was down for much of the first half before taking the lead with 5:41 left in the half. Through the rest of play, the Warriors never surrendered their lead, although they had trouble putting La Sierra away.
 
Moore said, "We just didn't have connective stops in the way that we need to – where if we have three stops we could increase the lead from eight to 15. I thought La Sierra did a really nice job of coming back and establishing themselves at points where I thought we were going to lose them. They kept fighting back."
 
Westmont performed extremely well from the free throw line. They got to the line 34 times to La Sierra's 14. They had three players in Harman, Karczewski, and David Gunn get to the line six or more times.
 
Moore said, "David Gunn just continues to make free throws late in the game – he was 6-6. He's just such a fine shooter.
 
"I thought our younger guys were really good from the free throw line – especially Kyle Scalmanini who was 4-4," recalled Moore. "I think he really established himself as a contender for more playing time, as did Ben Okhotin.
 
"Both those guys played the kind of basketball that we would want our older guys to play. They aren't playing like freshman right now. It was important for them to play well tonight because we needed them," applauded Moore.
 
Okhotin added 13 points for the Warriors and shot 50% from the floor. Scalmanini finished with six points.
 
Westmont returns back to Murchison Gymnasium this Saturday to host the University of Redlands. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.