By Zach DeMarcus
March 7, 2019
 
(ROCKLIN, Calif.) Just one full week into March and the madness is in full swing. Westmont Men's Basketball (18-9) needed five extra minutes of overtime to put out the Firestorm of Arizona Christian (23-8) in the first round of the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament. The Warriors won by a score of 93-90 with senior captain Maxwell Hudgins nailing a 3-pointer with one second remaining in overtime to secure the win.
 
The Warriors won the tipoff and Matt Ramon hit the first shot of the game with a pull-up jumper from the right elbow. Ramon notched another double-double with 18 points and 12 boards.
 
The Firestorm were up 12-9 with 15:30 to play in the first half. The Warriors went on a 10-0 run over the next three and a half minutes. Kyle Scalmanini scored two of his career-high 25 points on a layup, Hudgins hit a three followed by an and-one play, and Cade Roth finished the run with a layup.
 
The Firestorm continued to fight back and would tie the score at 25-25 with just over five minutes to play in the opening half. The Warriors, however, would snag a narrow two-point margin at 36-34 heading into halftime.

Arizona Christian averages just under 94 points per game and Westmont was able to hold them to just 34 first-half points.
 
Westmont head coach John Moore said, "I thought in the first half we set a great tone to start the game. I thought we did a really nice job of executing our offense – especially with Olisa Nwachie in foul trouble. We had great play out of Matt Ramon and outstanding play from Jordan Spaschak."
 
In the first five minutes of the second half, there were four lead changes and four ties. In all, the game produced 15 ties and 18 lead changes. The largest lead by either team came in the first half when Westmont led by seven.
 
The Warriors were up by five with 12:48 to play, but the Firestorm went on a quick 6-0 run over the next minute to take a one-point lead. Terrence Shelby converted a layup, Callum Lawson hit two free throws, and Al Burge hit a layup to finish the short run. Lawson led all scorers with 30 points – 13 of which came from the charity strike.
 
The Firestorm had 29 trips to the free throw line and converted on 24 of them. The Warriors had 19 opportunities and hit 16.
 
As the game was winding down, it continued to be a question of who was going to be able to close out the game – something the Warriors have struggled with on occasion this season. With 10 minutes to play, the score was tied 63-63. Arizona Christian would go up by five at 71-66 with 6:50 left to play.
 
Westmont responded with a 7-2 run to tie the game at 73-73 with 4:38 to play – neither team willing to give an inch. Lawson hit a layup to put the Firestorm up 77-76 with 3:33 to play. The Warriors nearly turned the ball over, but Ramon was able to gather the ball and make the put back to regain the lead at 78-77. Hudgins followed with a jumper to extend the lead to 80-77 with 2:05 left. "I loved the way Matt played tonight – he was heroic," thought Moore.
 
Lawson was fouled and hit both his free throws to bring the game back within one. Nwachie was fouled on the other end and he went one of two from the line. Emelio Acedo continued the trend by being fouled and hit both free throws to tie the game at 81-81 with 1:19 left to play.
 
The Warriors came down the floor and were looking for Nwachie. As he attempted to get position, he was called for an offensive foul – his fifth of the evening, forcing the Warriors to attempt to pull off a win without their leading scorer.
 
The Firestorm had the ball with 58 second to play. Lawson was given the ball down low and was double teamed. Ramon came in and stripped the rock from Lawson and once he dribbled to half court, the Warriors called timeout. There was just a two second difference between the game clock and the shot clock and Moore drew up a beautiful play in the timeout.
 
With the clock running out, the ball was at the left elbow and Hudgins slipped through the key towards the rim and was given a perfect pass. He had a clear look at the rim, but left the ball just a few inches too short – missing the potential game winner. The Firestorm had four seconds to play with in regulation, but were unable to convert – sending the game to overtime.
 
With Nwachie out, Westmont sent freshman Jordan Taylor to the tipoff to start the overtime period. Taylor won the tip for the Warriors and Scalmanini came down and was fouled as he hit a layup – he'd hit the and-one free throw. Scalmanini followed with a jumper, layup, and two more free throw makes – scoring Westmont's first nine points in the overtime period.
 
Moore said, "Kyle is a gamer. The harder the game situation is the better Kyle is. He's one of those guys who wants the ball in his hands when the game clock is winding down."
 
With 11 seconds left, the game reached its 15th and final tie. Westmont had the ball due to Ramon taking a charge on the other end of the floor. The clock was winding down and Hudgins flared out past the 3-point line. Spaschak found Hudgins who, with poise, nailed the game-winning 3-pointer with one second left on the clock.
 
"Max Hudgins, talk about redemption. He missed that layup that would have won the game in regulation and hits the big three with great confidence. Max was pretty special," noted Moore.
 
Westmont won by a final score of 93-90. They advance to face top-seeded The Master's (25-5) in tomorrow's second semifinal game at 7:30 p.m. Number three seed William Jessup (22-9) won game one of the tournament over the six seed Hope International (19-11) 91-82. William Jessup advances to face the two seed in Vanguard (25-5) tomorrow in semifinal number one at 5:00 p.m. The winners of the two semifinals will play each other in the championship on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.