While Fresno Pacific was bombing away from the outside Wednesday night, Westmont couldn’t convert from close range in a 72-65 men’s basketball loss to the Sunbirds at Murchison Gym.
Fresno, ranked No. 6 in the NAIA, hit 12-of-27 from long range while stretching its winning streak to 12. The Sunbirds (15-3, 8-0), who have a three-game lead in the GSAC, made 50 percent from the field while tossing up more threes (27) than twos (21).
Westmont (10-7, 4-4) hit just 36.4 percent and suffered its third straight loss with the last two coming at home. Blake Bender scored a career-high 20 off the bench and Andrew Schmalbach hit a half-dozen 3-pointers, including four in the first seven minutes of the second half, on his way to 20 points.
“We have a lot of shooters and coach told us to shoot when we we’re open, so that’s what we did,” said Schmalbach, who converted 6-14 from 3-point land. “I would have traded some of my 3’s in the beginning to hit the ones in the end if that meant we would have won. The great teams hit those shots. We just couldn’t find one at the end and they pulled away.”
Fresno’s 1-3-1 zone gave the Warriors trouble in the first half, when they trailed by as many as 13. Westmont cut the deficit to six at intermission (34-28) and led for much of the second half. The Warriors took their biggest lead at 60-56 on a steal and breakaway layup by Schmalbach with 4:55 to play.
But the Sunbirds responded with an 8-0 run and went on to outscore the home team 16-5 over the final 4:54.
“We missed a lot of layups tonight,” said 17th-year Westmont coach John Moore. “If we make our layups, I think we win this game by eight or 10.
“We missed tip-ins, we missed layups, we missed wide-open layups. As (assistant coach) Jim Dykstra has said numerous times, ‘We practice making layups more than any team I’ve ever seen.’ If you’re not doing what you do most in practice effectively, then you’re just not going to win games.”
Dan Rasp had 13 points and six rebounds for Westmont while Chris Jackson contributed seven assists. The Warriors (10-7, 4-4) started the night tied for third in the GSAC before tumbling into a three-way tie for sixth.
The Warriors hit four straight 3-pointers to open the second half, including three by Smalbach. That capped a 14-3 run that gave the home team a 40-37 lead.
Bender, who hit 8-11 from the charity stripe, converted 1-of-2 free throws with 4:11 to play, giving the Warriors a 61-59 lead.
Then came a key possession — Fresno missing a trio of 3-pointers and getting the offensive rebound each time. On the fourth try from long distance, Marcus West drained a trey from the right side.
“That was the backbreaker,” said Moore. “We couldn’t get a rebound and they buried that last three.”
James Lewis, the GSAC scoring leader at 20.6 per game, topped the Sunbirds with 20 points while West had 19 and Todd Brown added 16. Lewis and Brown (4-5) combined to make 7-11 from downtown.
“We got a little hesitant, myself included,” said Bender, a 6-7 sophomore from Anaheim Hills. “I missed that layup near the end (which would have cut the deficit to 68-65 with 17 seconds left). But we did play well against the No. 1 team in the GSAC.”
After outrebounding the Sunbirds 19-10 in the opening half, Westmont lost the second-half board battle 24-14.
Rasp, a 6-6 sophomore, made 4-9 from the floor but wasn’t his usual self.
“Dan Rasp never misses those shots he was missing tonight,” said Moore. “Bender missed a few wide-open ones too. You have to do the simple things well and we didn’t do that.
“Our guys need to keep their chins up and remember that they’re a very good team.”
