By Jacob Norling
November 25, 2023
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) In their final game before PacWest play Westmont Men's Basketball (3-2) took care of the visiting Life Pacific Warriors (0-3) by a score of 100-60. In front of a surprisingly-full Thanksgiving weekend crowd the home team rewarded the bunch, treating their fans to a strong offensive showing before leaving town for Hawaii.
 
As a team, Westmont shot 58.5% from the field (38-65) and also made 14 of 27 heaves from beyond the arc. Of Westmont's 38 makes, 25 came off of assists, and nine of Westmont's 10 active players recorded at least one basket.
 
"It was another building night for us on top of the UCSB game," said Westmont head coach Landon Boucher. "We're doing a great job taking care of the ball. Tonight, we only had six turnovers, and against UCSB we only had nine. With that, we had 25 assists tonight.
 
"Our guys were sharing the ball, moving the ball, and were taking joy in their teammates making shots. It was exciting to find open shots, and see how we did so. We often made the unselfish play. Instead of taking an okay shot at the rim, we passed outside to take a great shot."
 
Individually, Anthony McIntyre followed up his near-30 point performance in the Thunderdome with another stellar night, this time scoring a game-high 23 points on seven of 14 shooting. Behind McIntyre, Zeke Viuhkola continued to make headlines as the spark-plug came off the bench to score 19 points on six of eight shooting, including four makes from three-point land.
 
"Zeke and Mac came in and made an immediate impact," added Boucher. "We had a slow start, which is something we want to make sure doesn't happen too often. When Anthony got in, though, he made an instant difference, on both ends.
 
"Anthony did a great job not only defending and shooting, but he did a great job at finding others as well. Then Zeke was able to stretch the floor big time in the first half, allowing us to build that lead."
 
Behind the two bench stars, Jarrett Bryant scored 14, Adrian McIntyre scored 13, and Jalen Townsell had 10. Bryant and Amir Davis each had a team-high eight rebounds, while Davis also led the team with eight assists. Drew Ramirez also scored nine points to go along with a trio of both rebounds and assists.
 
With a brief hot start from Life Pacific, Westmont did not take their first lead until the 13:18 mark in the first half. Following the go-ahead layup by the elder McIntyre, Westmont never trailed again. By the end of the first half Westmont led LPU 54-36, and then in the second, Westmont outscored the opposition 46-24 to put up an even century mark.
 
Looking forward, Westmont will open PacWest play with their three-game Hawaii road trip, beginning with a Thursday night matchup against Chaminade in Honolulu.
 
"It's going to be a tough trip," acknowledged Boucher. "Our first PacWest games in program history, and they're coming against three really good opponents. These are tough games to play on the islands. We're going in trying to be as prepared as possible.
 
"The PacWest is going to be loaded with teams that are good at home, so the teams that are going to set themselves apart are the ones that are going to be able to get it done on the road. We're going in there knowing we're going to take it one game at a time."
 
Tip-off on Thursday night is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. PST and links to live coverage will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.