By Jacob Norling
February 8, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) What happened on Saturday night is the kind of thing that you dream about when you stroll inside Murchison Gymnasium on the campus of Westmont College. The Westmont Men's Basketball team entered the night in a tie for the sixth and final playoff spot in the PacWest standings, with four of their final six games against the top-three teams in the conference. A daunting six-game slate began on Saturday when the Warriors welcomed in the 19th-ranked Point Loma Sea Lions, a team who had won 13 of 14 conference contests before tonight.
 
If someone would have told you on Saturday morning that Westmont would beat Point Loma, and that the Warriors would not only be in sixth, but fifth place come bedtime, then as a Westmont Basketball fan you would probably go to sleep with a smile on your face. What happened in an eventual 99-89 win, however, might make it difficult to settle in tonight. At least that was the case for Westmont's head coach Landon Boucher after the game.
 
"I'm happy you get to go to bed happy tonight," a friend said to Boucher in the aftermath of Saturday's contest.
 
"Are you kidding me?" replied Boucher. "I'm so wired right now, there's no way I'm getting any sleep tonight."
 
What made Saturday's 99-89 overtime win so significant was the performance of senior guard Adrian McIntyre. While chasing down a spot in the PacWest Tournament in his final year as a Warrior, McIntyre just so happened to also chase down a legendary record. Against Chapman during the 1954-55 season, Westmont legend Tine Hardeman dropped 46 points, which at the time was one-better than John Crew's mark of 45 from the season prior. While Crew's record lasted just one season, Hardeman's had lasted 70 years until Saturday night in Murchison Gym. Hardeman's record stood until Adrian McIntyre scored 51 points in an overtime win against Point Loma on February 8, 2025.
 
"This was done in Tine's honor," assured Boucher.
 
Hardeman, the Westmont Athletics' Hall-of-Famer, passed away this December.
 
"Tine was a dear friend to me, and the entire Westmont community," reflected Boucher. "He was at games this year, just weeks before he passed away. I know that if he was in his wheelchair, sitting where he'd always sat tonight, that he would have been cheering for Adrian to break his record."
 
In a thrilling 40 minutes, McIntyre had 35 points as the Warriors and Sea Lions headed into overtime even at 74. In fact, McIntyre came fairly close to having to settle for 38 points, as a near-full court shot would not fall off the glass as time expired in regulation. It is safe to say that all in attendance were grateful that they got to see McIntyre for five more minutes, instead.
 
Point Loma scored three points over the first three minutes of overtime. McIntyre, himself, had scored 11 points in the same timeframe. An easy layup, at least by McIntyre's standards, opened the scoring in overtime. One possession later, McIntyre drove to the hole once again, muscled through a swarm of Sea Lions, and flexed his way to an old-fashioned three-point opportunity. After getting the free throw to fall, Point Loma answered with a three-point play of their own. McIntyre responded by putting his defender on roller skates, stepping back, and hitting his first three-pointer of the night. The best player in The Murch skipped his way back down the floor, making sure to thank his maker before getting back on defense.
 
Another short-range look at the 2:21 mark gave McIntyre 45. An ensuing free throw gave him 46, and tied him with Hardeman atop the record book. By the time he got to the free throw line with 1:35 remaining, just about every fan in attendance knew what was about to happen. In fact, McIntyre's own personal cheering section could be heard hollering, "For the record! For the record!" as Adrian waltzed to the line. The first of two free throws would not go, but the moment was inevitable.
 
With 1:35 remaining, McIntyre became Westmont's all-time single-game record-holder with 47 points. Two more free throws down the stretch would give him 49, and at that point the consensus was clear: he might as well go for 50.
 
McIntyre's encore came with just 13 seconds remaining, when a fast-break layup made him the first Westmont Basketball player to ever score 50 points in a single game. It also put the finishing touch on a 99-89 win over the first-place team in the PacWest.
 
McIntyre had the honor of dribbling the ball out just beyond midcourt, and the senior could no longer contain his grin as time expired. McIntyre hurled the ball towards the heavens before being swarmed by his Warrior teammates at mid-court. By the looks of uncontainable joy on every single one of their faces, if you did not know which one of them was the 51-point man, you may not have been able to tell.
 
After shaking hands with the Sea Lions McIntyre threw both hands up in celebration, before Mason Romano became the first of dozens to pull McIntyre in for a hug. After Jarrett Bryant presented McIntyre with the game ball, Adrian received a large embrace from his longtime coach, Joey Ramirez. Then, McIntyre finally made his way to his big brother, Anthony, who knows a thing or two about having a big night in Murchison Gym.
 
In fact, Anthony was the team's pregame speaker on Saturday. The former Warrior spoke to how the team got hot at the end of last season, but how given Westmont's probationary period in the NCAA, there would be no postseason basketball in Anthony's senior year. Anthony urged this Westmont team to take advantage of an opportunity that the class of 2024 was not granted. His younger brother and company took full advantage of that opportunity on Saturday night.
 
Before Adrian could make his way to the locker room, he was stopped and asked to pose with a piece of paper. That sheet, of course, simply read, "51".
 
When he came out of the locker room minutes later, there were several more hugs to be had. Even the 37-year public address announcer of the Warriors, Bob Quackenbush, stopped to pose for a selfie with the record-breaker.
 
Finally, McIntyre was asked to reflect on a night that will echo in Murchison Gym for as long as Westmont Basketball is played.
 
"I would not have been able to do what I did if it wasn't for God," began McIntyre. "He has put me in this position, and He has brought me so far. I want to give all the glory, all the thanks to Him.
 
McIntyre continued, "It was just a fun experience tonight. I had told the guys before the game, 'I would not want to do this with anybody else'. I meant that. How they responded, how they reacted to not only our team's success, but my individual success, that is part of the reason why I would not want to do this with anybody else."
 
"Our guys ran on the floor not because we won, but because they were celebrating Adrian," said Boucher. "When we got done talking to the guys in the locker room, Adrian turned to the guys and said, "hey, I could not have done it without you guys, but also, we still have a long way to go".
 
That is true. There are still five games left to play, and three of those are against the top-three teams in the PacWest. McIntyre and the Warriors will surely feel they have to turn the page quickly, and get ready for a battle at Azusa Pacific come Wednesday night.
 
Before that page is fully turned, however, one can only hope that McIntyre and the Warriors understand that Saturday night's page was written in permanent ink. Records are meant to be broken, and someday when a young man wearing a Westmont uniform scores 52 points, fans may flock to the box score from February 8, 2025, perhaps wanting to know a little bit more about a once-historic night.
 
Let the record show that Saturday night not only mattered to Adrian McIntyre, but that it meant a great deal to his teammates, his coaches, and all in attendance. The same was surely true for Tine Hardeman and company 70 years ago, and may the same be true when McIntyre's record is someday broken.