The decibel-level in Murchison Gym matched the energy on the court in the first half of Wesmont’s men’s basketball game on Saturday.
It was quiet.
“I though we still had the ‘Biola haze,'” said coach John Moore, referring to Tuesday’s road win against arch-rival Biola. “I thought we played with very little energy, very little intensity and we weren’t very smart.”
Well, the Warriors turned their 22-21 halftime deficit against Point Loma completely around in the second half. By the end of the night, Westmont had its fifth consecutive victory, pulling away to sink the Sea Lions 62-46.
Andrew Schmalbach scored a game-high 15 points on Saturday night.
Senior Andrew Schmalbach hit three 3-pointers for a game-high 15 points. In the pre-game Senior Night ceremony, the Santa Maria native was hailed by Moore as one of the greatest long-range shooters in Westmont history.
“I feel like I kind of had to live up to that expectations, so I’m happy I knocked a couple down,” said Schmalbach, who pulled into third on the school’s all-time 3-point list behind Corey Blick and San Marcos High grad Zak Dematteo.
“Andrew’s back. I think he’s had some moments the last few games where he hasn’t been himself, but tonight he looked very comfortable, like he wanted to shoot it,” said Moore.
Blake Bender added 10 points off the bench and filled a big defensive hole as the Warriors were without leading-scorer Dan Rasp for much of the game due to foul trouble.
“We’ve had to do that a few times this year… I think it’s a good encouragement for the rest of our guys,” said Moore.
For much of the evening, it looked quite possible that the teams would be in a nail-biter like last time, when Westmont pulled out a 69-66 road win in double overtime on January 16th. But the Warriors built their lead up to double-digits eight minutes into the second half on a jumper by senior Johnny Miller. Fellow senior Matt LeDuc followed with a tip-in to make it 42-30 at the 9:43 mark. Freshman Preston Branson soon followed with a three.
Rasp, who played just 14 minutes, came in with the Warriors up 11 and 3:16 remaining, only to foul out 14 seconds later. The Warriors would out-score the Sea Lions 9-5 down the stretch to seal it.
Point Loma was held to just 16 field goals and one trey on the evening, while the Warriors were good for 24 and four in those respective categories. Christopher Jackson dished out six assists and Evan Haines had nine boards in 22 minutes of play.
Westmont is now 19-7 overall and 11-6 in the GSAC, while Point Loma is 8-18, 5-13. The Warriors will host Fresno Pacific on Tuesday. The Sunbirds are in third place, one game ahead of the Warriors.
