Westmont College Athletics

By Zach DeMarcus
March 14, 2018
 
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Fourth-seeded Westmont Men's Basketball (24-8) fell to Dillard (21-9) in the first round of the 2018 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship by a score of 71-74. Jerry Karczewski led Westmont's scoring effort with 19 points to go along with five assists.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "I thought we fought hard and we did most of what we wanted to do. I thought we gave ourselves many chances to finish the game. We had the right guys shooting the shots. We just missed a couple bunnies there late."
 
This was a game that experienced seven ties and 10 lead changes throughout – eight of those lead changes and five ties occurred in the second half.
 
Dillard jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead over the Warriors in the first three minutes of the game. Westmont responded with a 16-4 run over the next eight minutes. Kyle Scalmanini started the run with a 3-pointer, Dillard's Quinton Jackson followed with a made shot in the paint, Olisa Nwachie hit a jumper, Scalmanini hit again from beyond the arc, and Joshua Simmons hit two free throws for Dillard.
 
David Gunn continued the run when he connected for a 3-pointer, Karczewski drove and converted in the paint, Gunn followed with another made jumper. Scalmanini finished the run with a made free throw to finish the run and give Westmont a 19-14 lead with 9:41 remaining in the first half.
 
The Warriors would soon go up by six with the score at 22-16 – that would be their largest lead of the game. The Bleu Devils refused to let that last as they went on a 15-5 run over the remaining 8:49 minutes in the first half. Westmont trailed Dillard 27-31 at halftime.
 
On the game, both teams had very similar stat lines from the field. Westmont shot 43.3 percent from the floor, 30.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 68.4 percent from the free throw line. Dillard shot 43.8 percent from the floor, 31.3 percent from 3-point range, and 68.4 percent from the free throw line.
 
Dillard scored the first six points to start the second half – extending their lead to a game-high 10 points at 27-37. The Warriors, like they have all season, rallied back. With 12:10 remaining in the game they were back within one point of the Bleu Devils at 41-42.

Over the remaining 12 minutes, there would be eight lead changes and five ties – alluding to the fact both teams were unable to dig in for consecutive stops defensively. Neither team would lead by more than five points the remainder of the game. Moore said, "I think it was really more about trying to get stops on the other end. We weren't able to get the stops that we needed at key times."
 
Both teams continued to exchange blows up till the final minute. Gunn hit a jumper to tie the game at 71 with 55 seconds remaining. Karczewski fouled Kristopher Allmon with 47 seconds left – he would go one of two from the line.
 
Gunn missed a jumper with 22 seconds left – forcing Scalmanini to foul and sending Jackson to the line. He would hit both free throws to put Dillard up by three points with 18 seconds remaining. Westmont came down the court and Gunn pulled up and missed from 3-point range. Nwachie came down with the rebound and dished it back out to Sean Harman – who was beyond the arc and to the left of the key. Harman dribbled once to his left and pulled up at the buzzer. His shot was just off the mark.
 
The buzzer ended the game with a final score of 71-74 in favor of Dillard. "We needed to get that lead that we had in the first half when we could have broken it open. Dillard is a very good team, they executed well, and they made big shots," said Moore.
 
The Warriors finished the season with a 24-8 record. This was the fourth consecutive year that Westmont has made it to the Division I Men's Basketball National Championship – that is the most consecutive trips in school history.
 
Moore said of his four seniors that have made all four of those trips, "I love all four of them. I thought David Gunn had one of his best games that he's had in his career. Jerry was really good. Sean Harman does some things that we could never get enough of. Noah Blanton was our champion of character guy and he's a really fine leader in our program. All four of them are guys that we're going to miss terribly."