By Zach DeMarcus
February 9, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (15-7, 9-5 GSAC) remained undefeated at home on the season as they took down #4 Vanguard (22-3, 10-3) by a score of 75-70. The Warriors handed the Lions just their third loss of the season. Olisa Nwachie led all scorers with 19 points to go along with five assists and four blocks.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "I thought our team really responded well. Games like this allow you to develop a great deal of confidence. This team has been coming on. It's fun to see them rewarded against a very well coached team and a number four ranked team in the nation on a night when I don't even think we played our best basketball."
 
After five and a half minutes of play, the game was tied at 9-9. Westmont went on a 9-3 run over the next three and a half minutes to take a six-point lead. Kyle Scalmanini converted on a layup, Riley Devin hit a free throw and a layup for Vanguard, Desean Scott hit a jump shot, Nwachie followed with a layup and a Cade Roth finished with a 3-pointer – brining the score to 18-12.
 
With the score at 29-24 in favor of Westmont and just under five minutes to play in the opening half, the Lions went on an 8-0 run. Isaiah Gentry nailed back-to-back 3-pointers followed by two made free throws by Devin – putting Vanguard up 32-31.
 
Nwachie came away with a steal and dished the ball to Roth who drove and finished at the rim with his left. He then promptly turned and stole the ball on a Vanguard inbound pass. He passed to Nwachie who got fouled and would go one of two at the line. Matt Ramon hit a layup and Devin responded with a Vanguard layup to bring the score to 34-34 at halftime.
 
Vanguard came out of the locker room on a 7-1 run to start the second half over a slow scoring first four minutes – giving them their largest lead of the game at six. Westmont would respond with their largest run of the game.
 
Down 35-41 with 15:54 left to play, the Warriors would go on a 23-6 run over the next seven minutes to capture an 11-point lead – brining the score to 58-47 with 8:51 remaining. At the start of the run, Scalmanini was driving to the rim and made an acrobatic layup that looked to be an and-on opportunity. The near capacity crowd was ecstatic, only to find out to their dismay that Scalmanini had been called for an offensive foul.
 
"Our fans tonight were just electric. It was a wonderful Westmont Murchison Gym home environment against a high quality opponent. The officiating wasn't perfect, but we have to realize that officials are people too and they're going to make some mistakes along the way. You just have to play through some of those things like that," noted Moore.
 
"After that charge call where they were up by six, we went on an outrageous 23-6 run and took the biggest lead of the game. Not only did Kyle respond well, but our whole team responded well," said Moore.
 
The Warriors had a scare with 14:12 on the clock in the second half as their guard Jordan Spaschak went down in what looked like a serious injury. Trainers were called onto the court, but Spaschak would walk off on his own power and eventually would return to the game. Moore commented, "When Jordan went down it felt to me like the air went out of the gym."
 
Westmont held an eight-point advantage with 2:11 left to play. The Lions continued to fight as Brandon Brothers converted on a layup with 1:16 left. Geremy McKay finished strong at the rim getting fouled as he laid the ball in. He would hit the free throw with 37 seconds left to bring the game to a one-possession game at 68-65.
 
Nwachie responded with a huge dunk with 30 seconds left. Scalmanini came up with a steal and passed to Gyse Holsebosch. Vanguard was forced to foul to send Holsebosch to the line. He went one of two from the line to extend Westmont's lead to six with 22 seconds left. Vanguard's McKay converted on a layup, and Maxwell Hudgins was fouled and went two of two from the charity strike with 13 seconds to play.
 
Brothers quickly came down and nailed a 3-pointer with nine seconds left to bring Vanguard within three of the Warriors at 73-70. Westmont inbounded the ball, Holsebosch dribbled through a trap and found a wide open Desean Scott at half court who dribbled and threw down a dunk with authority to stamp the 75-70 victory for the Warriors.
 
"Gyse at the end to be able to dribble through a trap and find Desean to put an exclamation point on the game was huge," said Moore.
 
Westmont held Vanguard to just 34.3 percent shooting from the floor in the second half. When asked what it took to take down Vanguard, Moore said, "I thought defensively we were outstanding in the second half. We outrebounded them by a big margin. They average almost 13 offensive rebounds a game and we held them to six and we outrebounded them 39 to 29. You have to rebound well to win games against quality opponents.
 
"Geremy McKay had 12 rebounds and four of those were offensive rebounds the first time we played them. We held him down tonight. He may be the best offensive rebounder in our conference. I thought Matt Ramon and Desean Scott kept him off the boards well," said Moore.
 
Westmont will now prepare to host #7 The Master's next Saturday. Westmont is winless against the Mustangs in their last six meetings, and haven't won since December 7, 2016 when they won on the road 84-78.
 
"I've always felt like they're the team to beat in the conference. They've been very good against us. It's been a couple years since we've beat The Master's. We're excited for the challenge. We're going to rest for a couple days and then gear up next week with lots of preparation for a team that's very good," finished Moore.
 
Tipoff for Saturday's game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.