By Zach DeMarcus
February 21, 2019
 
(EL CAJON, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (16-8, 10-6 GSAC) used a strong second half to put away San Diego Christian (8-17, 4-12 GSAC) this evening in a Golden State Athletic Conference matchup by a score of 77-64. Olisa Nwachie tallied a double-double with 18 points and 10 boards while Maxwell Hudgins added 18 points of his own.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "I thought Matt Ramon was the defensive player of the game – he was tenacious."
 
To open the game, Nwachie pushed the ball forward to Matt Ramon on the tipoff and Ramon took the ball straight to the dish and converted on a right-handed layup to score Westmont's first bucket just two seconds into the ball game.
 
The Warriors went up by six with the score at 17-11 and 12:36 remaining in the first half. The Hawks responded with a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to take a two-point lead. Hayden Fredrick hit a 3-pointer, Tristan Angelo nailed a jumper, Jared Nyivih converted on a layup and Fredrick added two free throws to complete the Hawks' run.
 
Down by three with 9:39 remaining, Kyle Scalmanini hit a layup for the Warriors. Cade Roth came up with a steal that led to a Hudgins layup. DeSean Scott followed with a lay in of his own to give the Warriors a 27-24 advantage.
 
Scalmanini hit a 3-pointer with three minutes left in the opening half to bring the Warriors within two at 34-36. Fredrick hit a layup with 1:42 to play for San Diego, Hudgins knocked down a three to cut the deficit to one with 42 seconds remaining, and Derek Novsek closed out the half with a layup to bring the first-half score to 40-37 in favor of the Hawks.
 
Both teams shot just over 55 percent from the floor in the first half. San Diego was 15 of 27 (55.6 %) from the floor and Westmont was 16 of 29 (55.2%). Basketball is a game of consistency and Westmont was able to stay offensively consistent throughout as they'd go on to shoot 55.6 percent (15 of 27) from the floor in the second half and held the Hawks to just 23 percent (nine of 38) from the floor.
 
"I really though defensively in the second half we were locked in and needed to play good defense against a team that is so capable of scoring. We locked in communication wise. We wanted to make sure we didn't give them wide open 3-pointers," noted Moore.
 
Westmont trailed for the majority of the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but took the lead back for good with 10:53 remaining from a Nwachie layup. Nwachie followed with another layup and Gyse Hulsebosch then went one of two from the free throw line. He got his own rebound on the miss and put the ball back in for two – pushing Westmont's lead to seven at 55-48 with 9:48 to play.
 
Moore said, "I thought Gyse Hulsebosch did some really nice things for us tonight. He made some big shots and made free throws. He missed one of his free throws and got his own rebound and put it right back in. I thought he played with the kind of poise that we needed to have him play."
 
The Warriors held on to their lead and eventually won by a score of 77-64. Westmont held San Diego's Novsek to 17 points and just seven of 19 from the field. Angelo scored 36 against the Warriors the last time the two teams met, but was held to just nine points tonight and one field goal in the second half. "I thought a lot of that had to do with Kyle Scalmanini. Kyle was playing on a bad leg, but he found a way to push through it," commented Moore.
 
"Max had a really nice shooting game. He shot 50 percent (seven of 14) and I thought he got really easy shots," noted coach. "Offensively we got much better shots in the second half. We also took a little better care of the ball and made wise decisions."
 
With two games to play, Westmont now stands alone in fourth place in the GSAC. William Jessup (20-8, 11-5 GSAC) is a game ahead of Westmont while #24 Arizona Christian (21-7, 9-7 GSAC) and Hope International (18-9, 9-7 GSAC) are a game behind Westmont in a tie for fifth place.
 
Westmont returns home for their remaining two games of the regular season. They will play host to Hope International this Saturday and Life Pacific the following Thursday. "I think Hope is hard to play against. They're a very good defensive team. I expect that we will be glad to be back home and excited to play an opponent that's as good as Hope is," finished Moore.
 
Both Saturday's and Thursday's games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Murchison Gymnasium.