By Zach DeMarcus
December 30, 2017
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (10-3) dropped tonight's game against Antelope Valley (8-4) by a score of 68-75. The Warriors finished 1-1 as the host of the 42^nd Annual Tom Byron Classic. The Pioneers have now handed Westmont two of their three losses on the season.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "I thought we did a really nice job of competing to come back. It felt like a game where we kept on having to come back. Then we took the lead at halftime and I thought we we're going to be in really nice shape. Just like the first game against Antelope Valley, we were really poor to start the second half both offensively and defensively."
 
After seven minutes, the score was 12-10 in favor of the Warriors. Antelope Valley then went on a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to take a seven point lead bringing the score to 12-19. The Warriors took back the lead when they answered with a 9-0 run of their own.
 
At the end of the half, Jerry Karczewski hit a three with less than two seconds remaining that extended Westmont's lead and sent the Warriors to the locker room up by five with the score 31-26.
 
Kyle Scalmanini finished with 12 points and four rebounds in his 25 minutes off the bench. Moore said, "Kyle's going to be a great Warrior. He is a fine basketball player. He is a guy who thinks the game well. He contributes in lots of ways. He will grow up as a player – he's got some holes in his game that he will get much better at. He has outstanding basketball instincts. We're going to be able to build on him for the next four years."
 
The Pioneers came out of halftime ready to go as they went on a 12-2 run through the first four minutes of the half. Antelope Valley took the lead and would hold onto it through the final buzzer. Westmont came within one point of the Pioneers with 3:14 remaining in the game but that was as close as they would get.
 
Antelope Valley finished off Westmont by going on a 7-0 run and extended their lead to eight with a minute and a half remaining. They would go on to win by seven with the final score 68-75.
 
Moore said, "This is a game where communication is really important. There was an out-of-bounds play in the first half where we did not pay attention to Hayden Hall and he hit a three. In the second half, an identical situation where they threw the ball to Hall coming down the court and we didn't have a guy out there and he buried it.
 
"Our communication has not been great. That's something that I'm really surprised by our team at this moment in the season. Sean Harman is always outstanding – he communicates for five people out there. Zac Jervis is outstanding when it comes to communication, but we need to have five guys out there talking and on the same page," continued Moore. "Our younger guys – it's all new to them. They need to learn from the older guys how important it is to communicate on the floor."
 
The Warriors head into their Golden State Athletic Conference schedule at home beginning next Thursday against William Jessup and Saturday versus Menlo. Moore added, "I have gotten to see both of them play live. We have two outstanding opponents that will be difficult to play against, but you want two tough games. I think we're going to fight hard to improve so we can come into conference play and be the best that we're capable of being."
 
Tip-offs are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. for the Thursday and Saturday games respectively.

42^nd Annual Tom Byron Classic All-Tournament Team

·         Most Outstanding Player: Timothy Soares – The Master's

·         Hansel Atencia – The Master's

·         Sheldon Blackwell – Antelope Valley

·         Sean Harman – Westmont

·         Jerry Karczewski – Westmont

·         Myles-Nolan Webb – Antelope Valley