Tyler Dutton nailed eight of nine field goal attempts, including two of three from long range, as Westmont Men’s Basketball posted an 81-70 win over San Diego Christian on Saturday night at Murchison Gymnasium in Golden State Athletic Conference action. Dutton’s 18 points brings his career tally to an even 1,000 points, making him the thirty-fourth Warrior to join the millennium points club.
“That was vintage Tyler Dutton,” said Westmont head coach John Moore of Dutton’s performance.” He was six for six from inside the three-point line. When he gets more shots from inside the line, it means he is getting very easy shots.”
The Hawks (6-6, 1-2 GSAC) showed they were much improved over last year by jumping out to a 7-0 lead early in the first half. San Diego Christian held onto the lead until Dutton stole the ball from the Hawk’s Craig Jackson and drove down the court for a layup to tie the game at 15-all with 10:25 to go in the first half.
The score remained close in the rest of the half, with Westmont holding a slight edge for the final seven and one-half minutes. Five times, the Warriors posted a four-point advantage but every time the Hawks answered with a bucket, three times from beyond the arc. After Westmont’s Dan Rasp sank two free throws to give the Warriors a 33-29 advantage with 17 seconds remaining, the Hawk’s Daniel Hazlett launched what Moore described as a “moon shot”. The ball found the net as the buzzer sounded, producing a 33-32 score at intermission in favor of the Warriors.
“San Diego Christian is so much better than they were last year,” said Moore. “I thought they played very well, especially early in the first half. I thought they played within themselves. I thought they got what they wanted. I thought we had a hard time guarding what they were running. A lot of credit goes to them.”
“We didn’t come out with a lot fire and dug a hole pretty quick,” said Dutton. “The second team came in and got us out of it. There was something missing right there. We came out in the second half and knew that we needed to bring a little more energy and play better defense.”
Jackson, a junior guard, supplied much of the fire power for the Hawks, scoring 35 points on 14-of-22 shooting.
“Jackson had a very special night,” said Moore. “I thought in the second half we would be able to contain him, but he scored 21 in the second half. Part of that was the confidence he played the first half with and part of it was that we lost him defensively a few too many times.”
Also contributing to the Hawk’s offensive efforts was senior guard Kevin Dillon who made five of ten three-point attempts on his way to 15 points.
A little more than two minutes into the second half, Andrew Schmalbach (9 points) connected from beyond the arc to extend the Warrior lead to six points (41-35). But just as it appeared that the Warriors might be able to pull away, Dillon and Jackson tied the game at 41 on back-to-back threes.
Midway through the first half, with the Hawks up by one point (54-53), Rasp scored on a layup to begin a 16-2 Westmont.
“We had a two or three minute sequence where Matt LeDuc hit a three,” recalled Moore. “Then Matt had a put back and Tyler Dutton hit a three. It went from a seven-point game to a 15-point game just like that. I thought the clutch three-pointer Tyler made with the shot clock running down gave us the breathing room we needed to have in this game. That play broke their hearts.”
San Diego Christian continued to battle, but did not get closer than ten points the rest of the way. The Warriors shot 66.7% (14 of 21) in the second half while limiting the Hawks to just 38.2% (13 of 34). But Westmont’s biggest advantage may have been at the free throw line where they made 17 of 23 in the second half and 26 of 35 for the game. Rasp made 12 of 16 from the charity stripe.
“Dan Rasp is Mr. Consistency,” said Moore. “Anytime Dan gets to the free throw line, and Dan got there 16 times, you feel like good things are happening for the Warriors.”
Also playing a key role in the Warriors’ second half turnaround were forwards Blake Bender and Evan Haines.
“I think we got a lot of good play out of Evan Haines in the second half,” said Moore. “He didn’t have a great second half but coming back the way he did should be a very big confidence builder for him. He had five of his seven rebounds in the second half, had a block shot and scored all four of his points in the second half. We needed every bit of his defense in the second half. He was a real presence out there. Blake Bender had a very special game, maybe his best game ever. He made shots at crucial moments.”
The Warriors will return to Murchison Gymnasium on Tuesday night when they will host #15 California Baptist (10-2, 1-2 GSAC) in a 7:30 p.m. game.
