Westmont Men’s Basketball made 72 percent of their shots in the first half (13 of 18) and took an 11 point lead into the intermission (44-33), but it wasn’t enough to defeat No. 4 Concordia (21-2, 11-2 GSAC) on the Eagles’ home court. The 84-77 Golden State Athletic Conference loss drops the Warriors to 14-7 overall and 6-6 in conference play.
Down by a point early in the first half, Westmont went on a 15-2 run to take a 21-9 advantage. A three-point bomb by senior guard Matt LeDuc started off the Warriors’ run which was capped by a jumper from junior forward Dan Rasp. For the fourth game in a row, LeDuc led the Warriors in scoring by posting 17 points. Eight of his points came at the charity stripe off of nine attempts. Rasp tallied 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and pulled down eight rebounds.
Up by seven points with just under eight minutes remaining in the first half, the Warriors’ took their biggest lead of the game with a 7-0 run. Blake Bender (16 points, 9 rebounds) converted an ‘and-one’ opportunity to start the run and then added two more free throws. LeDuc tossed in two from the free throw line to make the score 39-25 with 4:55 to play.
“I though at half time we had the ‘W’ but we didn’t quite get it done,” said Westmont Head Coach John Moore.
It took the Eagles five minutes to put together a 17-5 run and take their first lead 50-49. The Eagles did not trail again, pushing the margin to as much as 12 points (76-64) with three and one-half minutes remaining.
“We did not execute in the start of the second half like we did in the first half,” said Westmont Head Coach John Moore. “We looked a little fatigued with our offense in the second half. Our offense is predicated on back-cuts and we didn’t execute those as much as we should have.”
However, the Warriors were not ready to throw in the towel. A layup by Chris Jackson (12 points, 4 steals), a jumper by Bender and a layup by Rasp made it a six point game with 2:24 to play. After a free throw by the Eagle’s Dominique Cruz-Duncan, LeDuc cut the margin to five (77-72) on a layup with 1:56 remaining in regulation.
The two teams exchanged a free throw over then next 56 seconds before a Jackson layup made it a one possession game (78-75) with 45 seconds to go. But the Warriors would not get any closer. Cameron Gliddon, who nailed five three-pointers for the Eagles – four in the second half, hit two free throws to give the Eagles a five point margin (80-75). LeDuc answered back, with his last two free throws of the game, but that was the end of the Warrior scoring.
“I liked the way we played in the last five minutes with a lot of energy and a lot of heart,” said Moore. “I thought if we could have been a little less tentative defensively we could have come away victorious. I thought our game plan was perfect. What it comes down to with Concordia is guarding the three-point line on the defensive end and offensively taking care of the ball.”
The Warriors held the Eagles to 2-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc in the first half, but Concordia made six of nine from long range in the second half. The Warriors committed 22 turnovers while the Eagles turned the ball over just 15 times. On the boards, the Warriors held a 33-26 advantage.
Westmont returns to action on Saturday night when they host the Royals of Hope International at Murchison Gymnasium. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
