By Zach DeMarcus
January 12, 2019
 
(SANTA CLARITA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (9-5, 3-3 GSAC) had a tough time this evening as they visited #6 The Master's (16-2, 5-1 GSAC). The Warriors fell by a score of 66-88. Maxwell Hudgins scored a team-high 18 points and pulled down seven rebounds for the Warriors.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "The Master's are a very good team, but we just didn't play very well. We didn't play the kind of basketball that we're capable of and it showed with 18 turnovers in the first half. That's going to cause you problems. We were very careless with the ball, we over dribbled, and we didn't share the ball."
 
The Mustangs jumped out to an early 8-2 lead. The Warriors responded with an 11-0 run to take a five-point advantage as Matt Ramon hit a jump shot, followed by back-to-back layups from Maxwell Hudgins and Ramon. Hudgins then connected with a 3-pointer and Kyle Scalmanini hit a jump shot to make it 13-8.
 
The Master's went on a run of their own as they were down 12-16 with 12:41 remaining in the first half. The Mustangs scored 15 points and shutout the Warriors over the next six minutes to bring the score to 27-16.
 
The Master's would go on a 13-2 run to close out the half and jump out to a 45-23 advantage.
 
The Mustangs shot 50.7 percent (34 of 67) from the floor on the game and 50 percent (12-24) from beyond the 3-point line – bettering Westmont's 36.4 percent (20 of 55) from the floor and 30.4 percent (7 of 23) from behind the arc. The Mustangs were led in scoring by Darryl McDowell-White who added 23 points. Delewis Johnson scored 21 while Hansel Atencia (11 points, 11 assists) and Tim Soares (15 points, 15 rebounds) both had double doubles on the evening. 
 
"The game was lost in the first half. We were up 13-8 and again 16-12 and they went on a 15-0 run. When you give that up in a loud gym to a very good team – you're going to have trouble regaining that," noted Moore.
 
The Warriors picked up their game in the second half and were able to equal the Mustangs in second half scoring at 43-43 – brining the final score to 88-66 in favor of the Mustangs.
 
Desean Scott added all 15 of his points in the second half. Moore of Hudgins and Scott, "I think Max was one of our bright spots and I thought Desean in the second half did some good things for us as well.
 
"The one bright spot statistically was we got to the free throw line. I thought we did a nice job attacking in that way," noted Moore. The Warriors shot 79.2 percent (19 of 24) from the free throw line.
 
"I think we will respond. We have competitors. We have guys who know that they're capable of playing better – and they will," finished Moore.
 
Westmont will now prepare to travel to Hope International on Thursday before returning home to host San Diego Christian on Saturday. Both tipoffs are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.