Box Score

By Ron Smith
February 16, 2017
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Cory Blau tallied 22 points and Jerry Karczewski added another 21 as #16 Westmont Men's Basketball (21-5, 9-4 GSAC) recorded an 88-75 Golden State Athletic Conference win over Menlo (10-15, 3-10) on Thursday night in Murchison Gymnasium.
 
"I really liked the way we played in the first half," said Westmont head coach John Moore. "We shot it well, we moved the ball, we shared the ball, we had lots of assists and very few turnovers and we had success from the 3-point line (8 of 12). The second half, I thought we played a little sloppy. We missed free throws and gave up easier plays defensively. We gave up 48 points in the second half."
 
The Warriors scored 11 of the first 13 points of the game and never surrendered the lead. Westmont started the game with pair of layups by Sean McDonnell (10 points, 12 rebounds) sandwiched around one by Blau. The run concluded with Karczewski adding a layup before Blau nailed the first of his three 3-pointers.
 
Westmont took control of the game by closing out the first half with a 20-4 run. With just over five minutes remaining, McDonnell connected on a layup to start a Warriors' streak of scoring on eight straight possessions. Blau scored on the next possession with a pair of free throws and then drilled another 3-pointer.
 
A pair of free throws by McDonnell was followed by a three from Karczewski. Blau then connected again from downtown to make the score 46-23.
 
A free throw by Olisa Nwachie (7 points, 5 rebounds), another layup by Blau and two free throws from Zac Jervis (6 points, 3 rebounds) completed the first half scoring with Westmont holding a 51-27 advantage.
 
"We had good play out of Zac Jervis off the bench," said Moore. "He took charges, rebounded and got to the free throw line."
 
Westmont maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half. Menlo made it a 12-point game with a 3-pointer by Jeremiah Testa with 1:05 remaining, but that was as close as the Oaks would get.
 
Westmont shot 58.3 percent from the floor (28 of 48) including 45.0 percent from 3-point range (9 of 20). Menlo was held to 42.6 percent shooting (26 of 61) and 35.3 percent from beyond the arc (6 of 17).
 
In tonight's other GSAC game, #18 The Master's (21-4, 10-4) defeated William Jessup (17-10, 7-6) by a score of 103-93 in Santa Clarita.
 
With a week and one-half remaining in the regular season, #4 Biola (25-3, 11-3) holds a slim half-game lead over #10 Hope International (21-6, 10-3) by virtue of having played (and won) one additional game. The Master's is in third place, one game behind Biola and Westmont claims fourth place, just one and one-half games behind the leader.
 
William Jessup is in fifth place, two games behind Westmont. The rest of the conference – Vanguard (6-21, 4-9), Arizona Christian (16-10, 3-10), Menlo and San Diego Christian (7-16, 3-11) are still in contention for sixth place in the GSAC standings and the final playoff spot in the GSAC Tournament.
 
On Saturday, Biola and Hope International face off for first place in Fullerton. The Master's will host Menlo. In Santa Barbara, Westmont will be looking to avenge an earlier 103-96 overtime loss to William Jessup.
 
"William Jessup is a team that has been very good in this league," said Moore. "They played well against us in Rocklin. I think they will come in confident after having beat us up there.
 
"However, we are looking forward to this game. We have had this game circled on our calendar since we lost to them, and I think our guys will be ready to play."
 
Tip-off on Saturday in Murchison Gymnasium will be at 5:30 p.m.