St. GEORGE, Utah. — In an exhibition against NCAA Div.I Utah Tech (7-5), the Westmont men’s basketball (8-5) dropped the contest Monday night to the Trailblazers by a score of 80-53.
Early on, Utah Tech’s defense held Westmont at bay, allowing the Trailblazers to take control of the night’s tempo.
In the second half, Westmont’s defense improved significantly, but Utah Tech never allowed the Warriors the chance to put a dent in the early deficit.
“Utah Tech was a really good team,” said Westmont Head Coach Landon Boucher. “They’ve played a real Division I schedule. They’ve played Arizona and Washington close, and they haven’t played any ‘gimmes.’
“They were tough and made us work for everything we got. They gave us a lot of different defensive looks in the first half, and it was tough to get going. With that, in the past month we’ve lost games where at halftime we weren’t able to adjust.
“Tonight, the guys adjusted and put up a fight in the second half,” Boucher said Monday. “There was no sign of giving up, and it was worth our while to come all this way to play a quality Division I team.”
In the first four minutes of the contest, Utah Tech opened the night with a 13-4 run.
Moments later, the Blazers led the Warriors 22-9 with 13:00 remaining. Then, in the next minute, a floater from Kyler Warren and a 3-pointer from Cly Griffith highlighted a five-point swing to pull the Warriors within reach at 22-14.
Unfortunately for Westmont, UT held the Warriors to only two more field goals for the rest of the half, due to the constantly-active Blazer defense. During the period, Utah Tech forced 14 turnovers, and following Griffith’s three, the home team closed out the half on a 28-9 run. Ultimately, the Trailblazers went into the locker room with a 50-23 advantage.
In the second half, Westmont’s defense held the Trailblazers to only 30 points, a significant drop-off in comparison to the 50 scored in the first period. Westmont’s offense improved as well, putting up 30 of their own to finish the half in a 30-30 tie.
After allowing UT to shoot 51.6% in the first half, Westmont lowered their opponents mark to 37.9% in the second.
“Collectively, and individually, we can build off that second half,” noted Boucher. “Tone Patton is a guy who had one of his better defensive halves in the second. Our bench gave us a lot, and Cly had a good game as well where he played a lot of minutes.
“Hopefully, we can build off those positives in the second. To be down at half and then able to tie in the second was a much better way to go out.”
Offensively, the Warriors did not yet break out of their slump from 3-point range, making only one of 14 3-pointers in the second half, and three of 23 in total.
“We started the year at an unrealistically high percentage from three,” offered Boucher. “No basketball team was going to shoot that well all year. Now I feel like we’re on the other end of that, where it’s unrealistically low. At some point, I just want to be in the middle.
“I thought we got a lot of good shots tonight, and I hope we can continue to get those looks and eventually make them.”
Senior Cade Roth led Westmont with 12 points, with eight of them coming in the second half, while also leading Westmont with five rebounds. Amir Davis scored nine points with four rebounds, while Jalen Townsell scored eight points as well.
Westmont will now break for Christmas before returning to action on Dec. 29 for the 45th annual Tom Byron Classic. Westmont will take on Carroll (Mont.) at 7:30 p.m., and on Dec. 30, the Warriors will play British Columbia at the same time.
“Everyone is excited to go home and spend time with family,” said Boucher. “With that, there’s a sense around the team where we know we have a lot of work to do. We’ll enjoy Christmas with our families, and then we’re excited to get back together and go to work.”
Links to tickets and live coverage for the Tom Byron Classic are available at athletics.westmont.edu.
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
email: sports@newspress.com
