By Jacob Norling
December 4, 2023
 
(HILO, Hi.) A frustrating night sent a frustrated Westmont men's basketball team (4-4, 1-2 PacWest) home with back-to-back losses after the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans (6-2, 2-0) defeated Westmont 71-57 on Monday night in Hilo. Westmont led for much of the first half of the night, but after going scoreless over the final four minutes of the first period, the Warriors were never able to recover after Hilo took the lead and never looked back.
 
In a hot and humid environment both sides played a physical brand of basketball in the first half. Westmont took a two-possession lead early into the half, and was able to maintain the advantage until the period's closing minutes. With 4:43 remaining in the half Jalen Townsell buried a 3-pointer to put Westmont up 31-25, but unfortunately for Westmont, it would be the final time they scored in the half.
 
Over the final 4:24 of the half, Hilo outscored Westmont 10-0 to send the road team into the locker room trailing 35-31. The Warriors missed their final six field goal attempts of the half, after converting 12 of their first 20. One of Westmont's key issues was the fact that Jarrett Bryant was limited to just two shots in six minutes, due to two early foul calls on the sophomore.
 
Things began to fall apart across the first six minutes of the second half, with Westmont unable to knock down open shots while Hilo finished several dunks at the rim. As the game entered its final 14 minutes, Westmont trailed 52-39. Immediately following a timeout, matters grew worse as a Hilo three made it a 16-point deficit.
 
Westmont got their fair share of stops throughout the half, but offensively the team was unable to keep up with Hilo. The two teams headed into a media timeout with 7:20 remaining, and at that point, Hilo led Westmont 62-43.
 
Westmont made a few three-pointers over the final couple minutes of action to make the final score appear less crooked, but the damage was already done in an eventual 71-57 loss to Hilo.
 
Individually, Amir Davis led Westmont with 12 points on five of eight shooting, while Adrian McIntyre scored 10 on four of six shooting. As a team, Westmont shot only 37.9% from the field (22-58), while Hilo made 31 of their 58 attempts.
 
Westmont will fly back to Santa Barbara on Tuesday, before preparing for the renewal of an historic rivalry on Saturday night in The Murch. At 7:30 p.m. this coming Saturday, Westmont will host the Biola Eagles in the program's first PacWest game inside its home gym.
 
Links to tickets and live coverage will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.