By Jacob Norling
December 14, 2024
 
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) Westmont Men's Basketball (4-6, 2-1 PacWest) did something on Saturday night that a Warrior team had not done since November of 2006. After dropping their previous 17 contests to the Azusa Pacific Cougars (4-6, 1-3), the Warriors finally got back into the win column against their former GSAC foes for a huge PacWest win.
 
"This is a big win obviously just for this season, but this also feels like a program win," reflected Westmont head coach Landon Boucher, who had not experienced a win over APU in his playing or coaching tenure until tonight. "It feels like a Westmont Basketball win, because we hadn't beaten them in 17 games, in 18 years. To be down in the first half, to be on the ropes, it would have been easy to give up.
 
"Our guys did the opposite. They stuck with it, and they figured it out."
 
The eventual result did not look likely at intermission, when Westmont trailed 32-23. At that point, Adrian McIntyre was the only Warrior with more than four points, as the rest of the club aside from their leading scorer made just four of their first 18 field goal attempts. While McIntyre, who had 15 at the break, would save his best for the second half, the question was whether or not the rest of the Warriors would get involved.
 
Fortunately for Westmont, the rest of the group did not wait long to sway the game in Westmont's favor. Baskets by McIntyre, Mason Romano, and De'Undrae Perteete pulled the Warriors back within reach of the Cougars early into the second half, which preceded a go-ahead three-pointer from Jarrett Bryant at the 14:12 mark (39-38). The Cougars immediately answered with a 3-pointer of their own, but who else other than McIntyre promptly landed another shot from beyond the arc.
 
For the Cougars, their final lead of the night evaporated with just over 10 minutes remaining, when a layup from McIntyre gave him 25 on the night to tie it at 46. Then, on Westmont's next possession, Romano found an open Bryant down low who threw down a dunk to put the Warriors up for good (48-46).
 
As the night went on, eyes began to focus on McIntyre every time the ball came into his possession, and the Murchison faithful would not be disappointed as another three followed by one more layup put the Warriors up an even 10 at 62-52. Minutes later, the Cougars were down for the count after three's from Drew Ramirez and Bryant pushed Westmont's lead to a game high 16 points with just two minutes remaining (68-52).
 
A fitting end to Westmont's scoring total came with 1:12 remaining, when a loose ball found the hands of Ramirez, who then fired down the floor to a wide open McIntyre in transition. Westmont's star senior calmly deposited one last dunk to finish off the Cougars, and to finish off a career night. At night's end, McIntyre had 34 points on 13 of 17 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds, three assists and five steals.
 
The leading scorer at the NCAA Division II level left The Murch on Saturday with an updated season average of 27.1 points-per-game.
 
"I'm so proud of Adrian," assured Boucher. "It's always been him. He's been scoring all year long, but what stands out to me is him grabbing 12 rebounds, and him playing that many minutes (39). He played with so much heart out there."
 
Elsewhere, a second half surge from Bryant saw the senior finish with 13 points on five of six shooting, while Perteete finished with 11 points as well. Romano, who finished with five points, grabbed seven boards to go along with three assists. Ramirez led the team with six assists, as the senior also ended with five points and five rebounds. After shooting just 38.5% from the field (10-26) in the first half, Westmont shot 58.6% in the second (17-29).
 
"Man, what a half," reflected Boucher. "You know, in the first half we were defending how we wanted to. It was just that offensively, we were not in rhythm. They were being really physical in the first half. APU is a physical team, and their advantage is in their strength. I feel like our guys actually took advantage in the second half, though.
 
"We attacked it really hard in the second half. We went to more a ball-screen look for them, and I felt like our guys just played really unselfish basketball. We just continued to give each other great looks."
 
The Warriors will now officially get to decompress from finals week for a few days before returning to action on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. versus Fresno Pacific. Links to tickets and live coverage will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.