By Ron Smith
December 29, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball picked up its second win of the 43rd Annual Tom Byron Classic as the Warriors (7-4) posted an 86-65 win over Westcliff (2-15) on Saturday night. The win was the 600th of head coach John Moore's 31-year career against 340 losses (63.8 percent). All but five of those years have been at Westmont where he holds a 521-266 record (66.2 percent).
 
"Coaches never win games, players win games," said Moore. "Players have won a lot of games for Westmont. They have won a lot of games for (former coaches) Chet Kammerer, Ron Mulder, Tom Byron and Jack Siemens, and they have won a lot of games for me. I just benefit from having a really good groups of players who wanted to come to the right place. Westmont is the right place for many college students, including some who have never played a game of basketball.
 
"This is a treat to be able to coach at my alma mater. A place where I came to faith and a lot of people have deepened their faith. Basketball is a vehicle in which you get a chance to deepen your faith because of the struggle that is involved and the highs and lows. I get to try and help players manage that.
 
"Most of all, I am just excited to work with college men that are learning to become better men. That is the best thing we do. Wins and losses come, but if you don't have growth in becoming better men, then all of it is a loss."
 
After setting three new single-game tournament records last night in its 126-58 exhibition win over California Miramar, Westmont added a new tournament record tonight with 212 points scored in two tournament games. The previous two-game record was set by The Master's just last year at 209.
 
For the second night in a row, Max Hudgins led the Warriors in scoring by tallying 15 points on six-of-eight shooting, including three of five from three-point range. Hudgins was named the tournament MVP.
 
Kyle Scalmanini added 14 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field and made all four of his free throw attempts. Olisa Nwachie, who along with Hudgins was named to the All-Tournament Team, notched a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Spaschak added 11 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
 
"I thought we came a long way this weekend with defensive rebounding," offered Moore. "I was impressed with how well we did in that department.
 
"Olisa did some really good things on the glass. Desean Scott had 11 rebounds for us tonight in his first starting role. He took over where (the injured) Matt Ramon left off as a dominate rebounder for us. I like Jordan Spaschak's leadership. He continues to lead and is a very positive young man."
 
Westmont scored the first two points of the game on free throws by Nwachie and never relinquished the lead. Westcliff pulled to within three points (17-14) on a jumper by Cedric Sobers, but Westmont scored the next eight points on two free throws by Gyse Hulsebosch, a layup by Hudgins and two more layups by Matthew Schmidt. At halftime, Westmont led 40-29, courtesy of a buzzer-beating tip by Tristan Lloyd.
 
While the Warriors continued to widen the lead in the second half, at times they had trouble maintaining possession of the ball.
 
"It was a long second half," acknowledged the coach. "The first night we shared the ball well. Tonight, we didn't take as good of care of the ball as we should have. We made some poor decisions with the ball and turned it over 16 times in the second half. That is the result of a team that is trying to figure something out. It is process for this team. In this tournament we probably took three steps forward and one step back, but at least we are going in the right direction."
 
Adding to the length of the second half were 23 personal fouls that resulted in 33 free throw attempts by the two teams. Over the course of the game, Westmont shot 85.2 percent from the charity stripe (23 of 27).
 
Westmont converted 51.9 percent of its attempts from the field (28 of 54) while holding Westcliff to a 34.9 field goal percentage (22 of 63).
 
In the early game on Saturday, Menlo (4-7) posted an 89-62 exhibition win over California Miramar. John Paine, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, tallied 15 points and seven rebounds for the Oaks. Kenyon Williams led the Fighting Falcons with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists. Williams was also an All-Tournament selection.
 
The two other All-Tournament honorees were Ben Gaspar of Westcliff and Charles Neal of Menlo.
 
Westmont will return to Golden State Athletic Conference play beginning next week. On Thursday, Menlo will return to Murchison Gymnasium to take on the Warriors in a 7:30 p.m. game. Then on Saturday, Westmont will host William Jessup at 3:00 p.m. Both games are preceded by women's basketball games against the same opponents.