By Zach DeMarcus
February 28, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (17-9, 11-7 GSAC) clinched a spot in the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament with a win this evening against Life Pacific (10-17, 4-14 GSAC) by a score of 95-90. Matt Ramon was fantastic as he scored 15 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in the victory.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "What an unbelievable night Matt Ramon had. He just took to heart what we challenged them to do. We told them to get after it on the boards against a team that has been dominated on the boards. He certainly did that."
 
Ramon's 18 rebounds tied for seventh most all-time in a single game in Westmont history.
 
Westmont led by eight points with just over two and a half remaining in the first half, but Life would cut that eight-point lead down to one by the halftime buzzer – going on a 12-5 run to close out the half.
 
Both teams struggled to pull away from each other during the first half. In the first half alone, there were five ties and eight lead changes. Life Pacific shot 37 percent (13 of 35) from the floor in the opening half against Westmont's 47 percent (14 of 30). Westmont took a one-point 39-38 advantage into halftime.
 
Andre Allen led all scorers with 24 points and Life's Chez Lister added 21 for the visiting Warriors. DeSean Scott and Olisa Nwachie led Westmont with 19 points apiece with Kyle Scalmanini close behind with 18.
 
"If I had to give a game-ball I'd give half to Matt Ramon and half to DeSean Scott. What a bounce-back game DeSean had. He played really important minutes for us tonight," commented Moore.
 
Life stormed out of halftime to a 12-4 run to take a 50-44 lead with 15:54 left to play. Nwachie hit two free throws, Life's Adam Gotelli hit a jumper, Scalmanini hit two free throws, Gotelli knocked down another jumper, followed by a 3-pointer by Edgardo Campos to give Life the lead.
 
Ramon hit a free throw, Allen converted on a layup and knocked down a three for Life to bring an end to the run.
 
Life went up by as many as 10 with 9:50 left to play. After a Scott dunk, Westmont called timeout down by eight with the score at 59-67. "Coach Azain kept saying over and over again, 'there's a lot of time left. Don't hang your head.' They didn't and I thought our guys stayed the course. We just chipped away at it and got stops and made some important shots," said Moore of the timeout.
 
The timeout proved to be a turning point as Westmont went on a 12-3 run to come within one of Life over the next two and a half minutes. After the Scott dunk, Ramon laid the ball in, Scalmanini and Nwachie both followed with layups, Lister hit a three for Life, Ramon hit a jumper, and Scalmanini finished the run with a layup to bring the score to 69-70 with 7:05 left to play.
 
Life's Colin Cunniff would hit a three to extend their lead to 69-73, but Westmont responded with a huge 13-0 run over the next minute and a half to turn the table. Westmont would lead 82-73 with 4:09 remaining.
 
Life would bring the game back to a one-possession ball game after a few made free throws and two 3-pointers. Life's 10 of 15 performance from beyond the arc in the second half was a big reason they were able to stay in the game.
 
Gyse Hulsebosch hit four big free throws down the stretch. "I thought Gyse made some important free throws. He made those four that gave us a two-possession lead," noted Moore.
 
Westmont held on to their lead and would win by a final score of 95-90. Menlo lost a few minutes prior to the conclusion of this game, which gave Westmont a spot in the GSAC Tournament. Regardless, Moore said, "You don't want to go into the tournament having lost a game. You want to go at it with some momentum.
 
"I thought our bench was good tonight. We had a lot of good bench play. Matt Ramon was special. He worked as hard as anyone out there. He was guarding the toughest guy to guard and yet still found a way to get to 18 rebounds – what a hero," finished Moore.
 
The seeds are set for the GSAC Tournament that will be hosted by William Jessup next Thursday through Saturday. In the first round, sixth-seeded Hope International (19-0, 10-8 GSAC) will play third-seeded William Jessup (21-9, 12-6 GSAC) on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. The winner will play second-seeded Vanguard (25-5, 13-5 GSAC) on Friday at 5:00 p.m. Fourth-seeded Arizona Christian (23-7, 11-7 GSAC) will play against fifth-seeded Westmont at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday with the winner facing top-seed The Master's (25-5, 14-4 GSAC) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The championship game will be played on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.