The Westmont men’s basketball team improved to 6-0 on the young season following a 72-68 victory at Occidental college.
“We had a good second half, especially defensively,” Westmont head coach John Moore said. “We shot 60 percent in the second half, but the defense was instrumental.”
The Warriors trailed 33-27 at the break but exploded for 45 second-half points while holding the Tigers to 35.
Hunter Sipe led Westmont with 20 points and collected seven rebounds. He was 8-for-10 from the field and 4-for-6 from downtown.
Abram Carrasco and Justin Bessard each added 11 points while Cade Roth scored 10. As a team, Westmont shot 51% from the field and 43% from three-point range.
Occidental’s Caleb Yellin-Flaherty led all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-14 (71%) shooting, but the rest of his team combined to go just 16-of-47 (34%) from the field.
“We are going to get a lot better,” Moore said. “There are so many new components for the guys, they are learning them on the fly. But the guys are picking things up. I thought we responded quite well tonight.”
Westmont will host Maine Fort Kent at 8 p.m. on Friday.
BOYS BASKETBALL
VILLANOVA 80, CATE 77
Cate opened up the 2019-20 season with a match against Villanova Prep, who it faced in last years’ season finale for the Frontier League Championship.
History repeated itself on Tuesday as the Rams lost by three points, 80-77.
It was still a promising night as new sophomore Tyler Tom scored 18 points by making six three-pointers on the night. Seniors Parker May and Khadim Pouye finished with 21 and 16 respectively.
Cate led by eight going into the final quarter, but Villanova prep scored 29 in the final eight minutes to seal the win.
Cate will play at Garden Street on Thursday.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
DOS PUEBLOS 43, VILLANOVA 17
The Chargers improved to 2-0 on the season following another impressive win at the Malibu Tournament.
The halftime score was 19-8 before Dos Pueblos exploded offensively as Sophomore Ariana Tapia took control of the offense and opened it up after scoring a few baskets.
Ashley Gerken capitalized and hit four second-half shots from long range on her way to a game-high 19 points.
DP will play against Lawndale at 5:30 today.
TRINITY 54, CARPINTERIA 39
Trinity High got off to a fast start on Tuesday, leading by 13 at the end of the first quarter and eventually winning 54-39 to hand a loss to Carpinteria in its season opener.
Hannia Hernandez led the Warriors with 12 points as the team flourished a lot better in the fourth quarter.
Carpinteria will host Providence on Thursday night.
BISHOP DIEGO 38, VAUGHN 18
Elliot Redkey scored 16 points on Tuesday, which included a perfect 8-for-8 outing from the charity stripe, to help Bishop Diego win by 20 and improve to 2-0 on the season.
Julia De La Cruz finished with eight points while Ariana Morones led the team on defense.
Bishop will play Malibu at 4 p.m. today.
GIRLS WATER POLO
SANTA YNEZ 17, LOMPOC 1
Ally Alderete had a game-high six goals and added three assists and three steals to lead the Pirates to a non-league win over Channel League foe, Lompoc.
Taye Luke had two goals, three assists, and five steals while Hannah Allen tallied a hat trick to go along with a pair of steals.
Peyton Pratt had three blocks.
Santa Ynez will face Foothill Tech on Thursday.
CARPINTERIA 15, CAMARILLO 6
Carpinteria hosted Camarillo to open up the season and got off to a hot start leading 8-0 before ultimately winning 15-6.
Sophomore Briana Rodriguez had three goals on the evening freshman Ainslee Alexander tallied two scores in her first-ever high school water polo match.
Carpinteria will face another Division 5 opponent on Friday, Royal High.
MEN’S SOCCER
SBCC seeded ninth in regional
The Vaqueros earned the No. 9 seed for the Southern Cal Regional men’s soccer playoffs and will travel to face No. 8 College of the Desert for a first-round playoff match on Saturday at 2 p.m.
This is the third consecutive season SBCC has made the regional. The Vaqueros (10-4-5) has gone 3-1-1 in their last five outings and have outscored their opponents 33-24 for the season.
Christopher Robinson leads the Vaqueros in scoring with seven goals and Kyle Nicklaw has five.
Desert (11-8-2) is led by Alejandro Pimentel and Lucas Rosales who each have eight goals this season.
Email: Jmercado@newspress.com
