By Jacob Norling
February 28, 2024
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) A balanced offensive attack for the Westmont Warriors led to an 81-77 win over the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds on Wednesday night in Santa Barbara. Westmont ended the night over 50% from the field, and had four different scorers in double-digits by night's end.
 
Five early points from Jalen Townsell highlighted a quick start for the Warriors, who made four of their first six from the field by time of the first media timeout (15:23). At that point, Westmont led early on by a score of 11-6.
 
Townsell connected on a three a minute later, stretching Westmont's early lead to 14-8. By the 14-minute mark in the contest all five starters for Westmont had scored, with an Anthony McIntyre layup putting the team up 18-10. The second media timeout came at the 10:27 mark in the half, and at that point, a Drew Ramirez three put the Warriors up 27-19. Over the first 10 minutes of action, Westmont shot an impressive 11 of 15 from the field. Also of note, up to that point, Westmont had turned the ball over just once.
 
By the time of the game's next stoppage the Warriors were still shooting well over 50% as a team. Townsell connected with his second triple of the game to push the club's total to 37, but the problem was FPU had started to catch fire offensively as well. A lot of open looks at the basket for the Sunbirds saw the club pull within four with 5:03 remaining in the half (37-33).
 
However, with 2:15 to play in the half, Townsell buried his third three-pointer of the half and the Warriors were still cruising offensively. At that point, Townsell's triple put Westmont up a game-high 12 at 47-35. At the end of the first half the Warriors led 47-39, with the team shooting 55.9% from the field (19-34).
 
With that, the Sunbirds did a good job of not letting things get out of hand, with FPU shooting an even 50% from the field (16-32). Impressively for the Warriors, Westmont had dished out eight first-half assists while only turning the ball over once.
 
Ninety seconds into the second half Townsell struck again with his fourth 3-pointer of the night, once again putting Westmont up a new game-high at 52-39. Townsell, who averaged 7.8 points-per-game before tonight, had 17 by the second minute of the latter half.
 
By the time of the first media stoppage in the second, Townsell had 19 and the Warriors led 56-41 (15:54). However, a 9-0 run for Fresno Pacific saw the Sunbirds make it a two-possession game out of nowhere with 13:30 remaining (56-50).
 
FPU got back within five, but Anthony McIntyre continued his solid night by converting a shot at the basket with contact. With 11:39 remaining, Westmont's lead went back up to 61-53 after McIntyre converted the extra shot at the line. A minute later, Ramirez drilled his third three-pointer of the night to stretch Westmont's lead back to double-digits (64-53).
 
However, another 6-0 for the Sunbirds pulled the road team back in it again at the point of the penultimate media stoppage (66-60, 7:39). Sticking with the trend of the night, however, Ramirez' fourth three put Westmont back up 11 with five minutes to play (73-62).
 
At the time of the final media timeout FPU had yet another four-point surge, with Westmont going into the final timeout leading by seven at 73-66. Moments later, with 2:41 left, Adrian McIntyre hit what felt like a dagger 3-pointer to put the Warriors back up nine (76-68).
 
As the game entered its final minute the Sunbirds did pull within four, only for Anthony McIntyre to kill a game-icing 3-pointer with under 30 seconds remaining. Moments later, the Warriors walked off the floor with an 81-77 win.
 
Individually, Anthony McIntyre led the way with 22 points, while Townsell ended his night with 19. Rounding out the scorers in double-figures, both Adrian McIntyre and Drew Ramirez had 12. Both Anthony McIntyre and Amir Davis had six assists, while David also led Westmont eight rebounds.
 
As a team, Westmont ended the night shooting 51.7% from the field (31-60).
 
On Saturday the Warriors will conclude their season on senior night, when they host Concordia at 7:30 p.m. Links to tickets and live coverage are available on the Westmont Athletics website.