By Ron Smith
February 9, 2021
 
(COSTA MESA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball went into The Pit at Vanguard to open Golden State Athletic Conference and found they couldn't dig themselves out of a hole. The Warriors fell to the Lions by a score of 87-73.
 
"It is always tough to play at Vanguard," said Westmont head coach Landon Boucher. "Even though there were no fans, I definitely felt like we were on the road. I felt like Vanguard got in a nice rhythm early. We scored a low at halftime - 31 points - which might be our all-time low.
 
With Westmont trailing by just two points (20-18) with eight minutes to go in the first half, Vanguard produced a 6-0 run to stretch their advantage to eight. The Warriors later narrowed the gap to four (33-29) on a 3-pointer by Gyse Hulsebosch, but the Lions closed out the opening frame on a 7-2 run to take a 41-30 advantage into halftime.
 
"They played physical and picked us up full court," noted Boucher. "I think that stunted us getting into our half court stuff. When we didn't have success on offense, it was deflating and affected our ability to get defensive stops. It should be the other way around. We have to get stops so we can get your offense going."
 
Vanguard stretched its lead to 14 in the first two minutes of the second half, then maintained a double-digit advantage most of the second half. The Warriors did pull within six on a Hulsebosch layup with 10:38 to play, but the Lions responded with an 8-0 run to go up again by 14 (63-14). Westmont did not get closer than nine points the rest of the way.
 
"We couldn't defend, we couldn't score and they did a good job pressuring us," acknowledged Boucher. "We could never get over the hump and close the lead."
 
Abram Carrasco led all scorers with 23 points. Cade Roth tallied 18 points for the Warriors while Jared Brown added 11.
 
On the boards, the Warriors suffered a 33-18 disadvantage and managed just one offensive rebound.
 
The one place that Westmont shone was at the charity stripe where the Warriors made 23 of 28 (82.1%).
 
The two teams will meet up again at the end of the week to complete the three game series on the Warriors' home court. Westmont will welcome Vanguard to Murchison Gymnasium on Friday and Saturday evening.
 
"It is a three-game series, so we are going to try and make the adjustments and hopefully have a better result on Friday."
 
Due to state and county mandates that prohibit spectators at collegiate athletic events, no one will be admitted to the game. However, fans can follow the action on the Westmont Sports Network broadcasts available at https://athletics.westmont.edu/video, or through Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Android TV or Roku.