Box Score

By Ron Smith
March 16, 2017
 
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Sean Harman tallied 22 points - 19 in the second half - to lead Westmont Men's Basketball (25-7) to a 74-60 win over William Carey (Miss.) in the first round of the 2017 NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship.
 
"Sean was special," said Westmont head coach John Moore. "He does so many things that are unnoticed, but today, he was four for seven from the three and he got the lid off the basket. There was a lot of confidence on his part."
 
The Warriors started slow, falling behind 10-2 in the first five minutes. Westmont, which entered the game as the NAIA's third-best three-point shooters at 50.7 percent, missed its first 12 shots from beyond the arc. Harman finally ended the Warriors long-range frustrations when he drained a three with 5:27 remaining in the first half to pull the Warriors within seven (24-17).
 
"I was trying to bring energy to the team," said Harman. "I've been sick the last week, so I was trying to get us going when we were down."
 
A pair of free throws by Sean McDonnell reduced the margin to five (24-19) before Jerry Karczewski scored in the paint to make it a 24-21 game. Still a three point differential with 41 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Carey's Ashton Woodson nailed a 3-pointer to put the Crusaders up 31-25.
 
Westmont put up another three with 13 seconds showing on the clock. The ball bounced off the rim and McDonnell scooped up the offensive rebound. Sam Bentz reloaded from long distance and connected to send the Warriors to the locker room trailing by just three points (31-28).
"Hayden (Anderson) really kept us alive in the first half," said Harman of the senior who led the team with eight first half points on his way to 15 for the game. "We weren't getting many buckets. Haydo and Sam (Bentz) came in and Haydo got some back doors and Sam had some nice passes. That kept us going. (Defensively), big Sean (McDonnell) in the middle was huge for us. He took four or five charges and every time he took a charge, their offense went down."
"I think the main thing was not to get anxious," said Moore of the team's early shooting woes. "I tried to be as calm as I could be and tell the guys, 'it's going to come, let's not be worried or nervous'. Sam's big three at the end of the first half gave us some momentum going into halftime."
Harman opened the second half scoring with a three followed by a two-point field goal, to give Westmont its first lead (33-31) since the score was 2-0.
 
With seven minutes to play in the game, Westmont still held a two-point lead (56-54). Nearly a minute later, Harman made another 3-point bucket and Bentz scored after a Carey turnover to give Westmont a 61-54 advantage - the Warrior's biggest lead to that point of the game.
 
After a pair of free throws by Carey's Troy Salvant reduced the margin to five, the Warriors scored the next five points on a free throw by Karczewski and a pair of buckets by Harman and Anderson, resulting in the Warriors' first double-digit advantage (66-56). The Crusaders would get no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
 
With the win, Westmont advances to the second round where they will meet up with #1 Louisiana State Alexandria (31-0), the tournament number one overall team. The Generals are led in scoring by Brandon Mass, a 6-9 junior forward who averages 16.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game off the bench. Brian Sylvester, a 6-8 senior forward is averaging 14.0 points and 7.6 boards per game.
 
The General's inside game is aided by 6-10 senior center Gilbert Talbot who scores 11.3 points per game and claims a team-high 7.7 rebounds per game.
 
In the backcourt, the Generals benefit from junior guard Jordin Williams' 12.3 points per game.
 
Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. CDT/2:00 p.m. PDT.
 
"Sometimes in sports we get in too much of a hurry to move on to the next things," said Moore. "When we came into the locker room, I just said, 'Celebrate'. We got in a circle and yelled and screamed and acted like little kids. You have to celebrate when you win a national tournament game."