The Westmont men’s basketball team (17-10, 10-8) remained red-hot on Saturday, ending its regular season with their fifth-consecutive win.
This time, Westmont prevailed over Jessup (16-12, 10-8) by a score of 85-78.
“The league is so deep,” said Westmont head coach Landon Boucher. “It’s one thing to win five league games in a row in any league, but in this league, it says a lot about who we are. It says a lot about who we are as teammates, and it says a lot about our character to take a complete 180 from where we were a few weeks ago.
“For me, the San Diego Christian loss wasn’t a crazy loss, or an embarrassing loss. Still, from that low point, to go to where we are now, it says that there’s something special about this group.”
Westmont’s day both ended and began in celebration, with the club honoring four graduating seniors before tip-off. This year’s graduating class from the Westmont men’s basketball team was Cade Roth, Cly Griffith Jr., Tone Patton Sr., and Kyler Warren.
Roth’s graduation is a particularly noteworthy one for Westmont basketball fans, as the now fifth-year senior has been a staple of the program since arriving on campus in the fall of 2018.
“We don’t just want to play with each other, we want to play for each other,” revealed Boucher. “Today, our team played for each other and for the seniors.”
In the first half Westmont slightly out-paced Jessup in a shootout, going into intermission with a five-point lead at 44-39. The home-Warriors shared the basketball extremely well, dishing out 10 assists during the period. With that, four Warriors led the club with eight points at half: Griffith, Roth, Amir Davis, and Drew Ramirez.
During the opening period Westmont out-rebounded Jessup 23-17, with Davis leading the club after pulling down six boards.
After making only two 3-pointers in the entire half, Westmont drained three triples in the first five minutes of the second, stretching its lead to double-digits at 57-47. With under 10 minutes to play Jessup cut into Westmont’s lead to make it a two-possession game, but with 9:56 left, Roth buried Westmont’s fourth 3-pointer of the period to put the club back up 67-56.
Jessup refused to go away easily, once again cutting the lead to 72-67, this time with 5:43 remaining going into a timeout. Thirty seconds later, Roth hit yet another three, putting Westmont back up eight, but a basket later, Jessup remained within six at the four-minute mark.
In the final minutes Patton began to put the finishing touches on his senior day with back-to-back buckets that put Westmont up 81-72. At that point, with 90 seconds remaining, Jessup called timeout to draw up one final plan to salvage the day.
Jessup got back within five in the final minute of action, but ultimately, Westmont hung on to win their fifth in a row by a score of 85-78.
“I’m proud of the determination and focus from everybody to put together this run,” said Boucher. “These have been really tight games against quality opponents, and tonight we took care of business and played our game.”
The four Westmont players with eight first-half points all ended with double-figures, with Patton leading the club with 16 points. Patton also grabbed nine rebounds, with Davis, who contributed with 12 points, leading Westmont with 11 boards.
In his final game in Murchison Gym, Roth finished with 14 points and five assists.
“I really want to credit Tone,” Boucher said. “He had nine rebounds, and five of them were offensive. Amir had eight assists and only one turnover, to go with 11 rebounds. Amir played one of his best basketball games of the season.
“Drew Ramirez was really gutsy. Of course he had 14 points and five rebounds, but he did a really good job on Myles Corey, who is an All-American type player in our conference. We basically mirrored Drew’s minutes with Myles’, and he did an amazing job.”
Westmont will now turn its focus to Thursday night, when it competes in the Golden State Athletic Conference Quarterfinals at Hope International in Fullerton.
Westmont’s winning streak propelled the club to the GSAC’s four-seed, meaning the Warriors’ first match-up will come against fifth-seeded OUAZ on Thursday at 5 p.m.
If Westmont defeats OUAZ in the Quarterfinals, the Warriors will test #2 Arizona Christian in the GSAC Semifinals on Friday night at 5:00 p.m.
Links to live coverage for the GSAC Tournament will be available at athletics.westmont.edu.
“We don’t want it to be over,” said Boucher. “The most special teams that I’ve coached are the ones where at the end of the year, you’re sad that it’s over. Going into the postseason, I’m hoping we can get better every single day, which has been our motto since September.
“Right now, we’re playing our best basketball of the season. I’m hoping we can further our season day-by-day.”
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
email: sports@newspress.com
