By Zach DeMarcus
January 4, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (11-3, 1-0 GSAC) defeated William Jessup (14-3, 0-1 GSAC) 74-72 in tonight's Golden State Athletic Conference game. Westmont senior captain Sean Harman led Westmont with 25 points, seven rebounds, and four assists.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "Where would we be without Sean Harman? He was more than good, he was fantastic. He does so many things for us."
 
Westmont found itself in a hole early down 2-11 in the first four and a half minutes. Moore said, "I thought our guys really weathered the storm in the first half. William Jessup went up big early and we made some changes and battled back. I thought those guys who came in off the bench really helped us.
 
"Matt Ramon played an outstanding six minutes for us and played with great poise. I thought Tristan Lloyd did some really important things for us. This was without Kyle Scalmanini. Kyle would have made a big difference tonight with the kind of things he does to make things easy for us. It's a great win tonight with him down," said Moore.
 
Harman hit a jumper with 6:55 remaining in the first half to tie the score at 21. Luis Medearis hit a shot to put William Jessup up two. Jerry Karczewski then followed with a 3-pointer giving Westmont their first lead of the night at 24-23.
 
William Jessup would go on to take the lead and went into halftime up 36-32 over Westmont.
 
Westmont attacked the rim all game and it proved to pay off in the second half. Westmont got to the bonus early with 13:24 remaining in the game.
 
"In the second half, we got to the bonus early. They had six fouls right away. That's attacking the rim, offensive rebounding, and getting people to guard you near the basket. I thought we did an outstanding job of that," said Moore. "I think David Gunn started us off in the second half with some big plays."
 
After Olisa Nwachie hit two free-throws, Westmont's defense got a stop, and Harman nailed a three, Westmont took their largest lead of the night up by eight with just under 13 minutes reaming.
 
Nwachie finished with a double-double, scoring 11 points and pulling down 10 boards. He also added three blocks to his line. "I thought Olisa had a really nice game," added Moore.
 
Westmont trailed by one point with 2:54 remaining. Karczewski broke a scoring drought by hitting a three with 1:28 remaining – putting Westmont up 69-67. William Jessup tied the game with two made free throws from Brennan Rakoz.
 
Westmont moved the ball well and found an open Ben Okhotin in the corner beyond the arc. Okhotin pulled the trigger and his shot was a tad strong and hit the back end of the rim. Nwachie grabbed the offensive rebound and strongly laid the ball in – getting fouled in the process. He went on to make the free throw, finishing the 3-point play and put Westmont up 72-69 with 33 seconds remaining.
 
William Jessup came down and hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 24 seconds remaining.
 
With the game tied 72-72, Karczewski handled the ball and pulled up for a deep three. His shot was short and just barely nicked the front of the rim. Harman was there to quickly grab the ball and lay it back in with less than three seconds remaining.
 
William Jessup then tried to lob a half-court pass. It was deflected and rolled across the court as time expired, giving Westmont the win with the final score 74-72.
 
Moore said, "Sean Harman was guarding their toughest player and came up with five defensive rebounds, 25 points, seven boards overall, four assists, only one turnover, and two steals. His stat line was absolutely tremendous."
 
When asked about starting GSAC play with a win Moore said, "It's big – especially at home. It's going to be hard enough winning games in conference on the road, but if you can take care of business at home and if you can win half of the ones on the road then I think you've got a good chance to be a nationally ranked team and a national tournament team."
 
Westmont returns to the court on Saturday at home against Menlo. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.