By Jarred Davis
November 6, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) The crowd cheered and erupted in awe when Olisa Nwachie stole the ball and sent home a two-hand reverse tomahawk jam with just over a minute left in the first half of play Tuesday night in Murchison Gym.
 
Westmont Men's Basketball (2-0) opened their home campaign in winning fashion, defeating the Flames of Bethesda University (0-3) 105-69, as four players finished in double-digits. 
 
"We obviously got good play from Olisa, he was just dynamic tonight," said Westmont coach John Moore.
 
"Talk about bringing people to their feet. The whole gymnasium erupted when he had that put back dunk and break away fast break."
 
Nwachie led all scorers with 22 points and eight rebounds. Gyse Hulsebosch continued his hot shooting, making 3 of 6 three-pointers and finished with 16 points off the bench.
 
Matt Ramon earned a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, nine of them which came on the offensive end.
 
Ramon played a huge role in the Warriors dominating the rebound margin (62-26), as Westmont ultimately scored 20 second-chance points on the night.
 
"I thought Matt had a very special game tonight. He really brought the intensity and everyone followed in his footsteps because of how hard he played," said Moore.
 
Kyle Scalmanini also reached double figures with 11 points in 18 minutes of play.
 
"It was Kyle Scalmanini's birthday today. I thought when Kyle and the bench came in the first half, they played better than the starters did," added Moore on getting great contributions from his second unit.
 
"That was Kyle leading them, but also Gyse, Matthew Schmidt, and Cade Roth. I thought they really set the right tone for how they played and they were able to stretch out the lead for us."
 
The Warriors ultimately shot 54 percent from the field and held Bethesda to 36 percent, as the Warriors picked up their defensive intensity in the second half.
 
"I really liked the way we played defense to start the second half," added Moore.
 
"I thought in the second half we just executed a little better. Our defensive intensity and effort really picked up and a lot of that was led by Jordan Spaschak and Matt Ramon."
 
Westmont had a plethora of Warriors who also nearly reached double-digits, as Roth, Spaschak both added nine and eights each, while Maxwell Hudgins and Tristan Lloyd both chipped in with seven points apiece, respectively.
 
The Warriors return to the court to play another road game on Saturday at Occidental. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.