Junior center Evan Haines recorded 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds, but Westmont Men’s Basketball dropped an exhibition game against Cal State San Bernardino by a score of 68-64 on Wednesday evening. Dan Rasp tallied 13 points and seven rebounds while Andrew Schmalbach and Blake Bender each added nine more.
The first half saw six tied scores and five lead changes in the closely fought game. Westmont’s largest lead came as the result of back-to-back layups by Schmalbach, giving the Warriors a 10-6 advantage a little less than six minutes into the game.
After a jumper by the Coyotes’ David Jefferson, Rasp restored the four-point advantage with a jumper of his own, making the score 12-8 with 13:28 remaining in the first frame. But the Coyotes responded with a 10-0 run to take an 18-12 lead with 11:38 to go.
Evan Haines cut the lead to 18-15 with a long-range bucket before Grants Huff and Davon Davis scored to extend the Coyotes’ advantage to 22-15 at the midway mark. Westmont regained the lead (23-22) with an 8-0 run comprised of layups by Haines and Chris Jackson and free throws by Rasp and Bender.
Down 25-23 with 6:24 left on the clock, San Bernardino went on a 13-2 run to take a nine point lead (36-27) with 1:32 left. However, two jumpers by Haines and another by John Miller drew the Warriors to within three points (36-33) before the halftime buzzer sounded.
A three-pointer by Bender at the start of the second half produced the seventh tie of the game at 36-all. Schmalbach nailed a three pointer giving Westmont a 43-42 lead with 14:25 remaining. Twenty seconds later, Lawrence Tyson hit a three for the Coyotes and from that point on San Bernardino never trailed.
With 3:09 left in the game, Lawrence struck again from beyond the arc to stretch the Coyotes’ advantage to 64-55. Westmont would outscore San Bernardino 9-4 in the final three minutes, but it would not be enough to overtake the Coyotes before time expired.
Westmont shot 42.9% from the floor (24 of 56) compared to 45.2% by San Bernardino (28 of 62). The Warriors made three of ten from beyond the arc and 13 of 18 (72.2%) from the free throw line.
Westmont continues their road trip by driving to Las Vegas tomorrow where they will face Bethany on Friday and #1 Robert Morris (Ill.) on Saturday in the Las Vegas Tournament.
