John Moore often talks about what he’s grateful for at the weekly Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheons. On Saturday night against The Master’s College, the Westmont men’s hoops coach was grateful for the referee’s whistle.
The visiting Mustangs (14-11, 6-9 GSAC) were called for two critical fouls in the final 40 seconds of the game that sealed it for the Warriors, who erased an 8-point second-half deficit to pick up a 71-68 win.
Tyler Dutton took a charge with 40 ticks left that nixed an easy go-ahead lay-up for the Mustangs, and the visitors were quickly called for another with 15 seconds to go that sent Chris Jackson to the charity stripe, where he made both to put the Warriors ahead 69-66.
The charging call came as Mustang guard Ryan Zamroz drove the lane with his team down 67-66. He penetrated and dished a no look pass to a wide-open Jeremy Haggerty for the lay-up, but he collided with Dutton as the pass was made and was called for the offensive foul.
“I saw Zamroz driving, and he was cutting away from the basket so I knew he wasn’t going to put it up,” said Dutton. “So I just tried to get in front of him and plant my feet.”
Thomas Miller was then whistled while knocking the ball away from Jackson from behind, sending the junior guard to the line. Assistant coach Jim Dykstra was watching the game from the top row and told Moore that the charging call was legit.
“Jim was watching it from above and said it was a charge, but you normally don’t get calls like that late in the game,” said Moore. “We were very, very fortunate on that one, and I think when the ball was knocked from behind on C.J. we were fortunate as well. Anytime you can get those, you feel like you’ve gotten a break.
“We’ve had many, many times where something like that goes the other way, so we’ll certainly take a finish like we had tonight.”
That’s not to take away from Westmont, which out-shot the Mustangs from the field and out-rebounded them as well. Dan Rasp finished with a dead-silent 21 points and six boards, while the speedy Jackson dished out seven assists to go with eight points, five boards and a pair of steals.
Big-man Evan Haines had a solid night, shooting 6-for-8 from the floor for 12 points with 11 boards, but he missed all five of his free-throw atempts. Westmont was 2-for-8 from the line in the first half and finished at 16-for-26 for the game.
Haines hit a hook shot to tie the score at 33-all on the first play of the second half. Jackson would find Haines on a lob pass just pver a minute later to give the Warriors the lead at 37-35, but The Master’s went on to mount a 17-7 run that put the Mustangs up 50-42 with 13:12 left.
Andrew Schmalbach nailed a big 3-pointer to cut the Westmont deficit to five, and the Warriors chipped away before eventually taking a 67-65 lead on a Rasp tip-in at the 6:33 mark. The Westmont lead was anything but secure the rest of the way, but it held up thanks to the keen-eyed zebras.
Well, at least the Warriors would call the referees’ eyes were keen down the stretch. Mustangs coach Chuck Martin spent one of his late timeouts asking the official if he was from Santa Barbara.
Somebody’s heart is always broken on Valentine’s Day.
