It was the best of times, It was the worst of times. In the final minutes, it was a few plays that separated the two, as the Westmont men’s basketball team fell to Azusa Pacific 78-75 on Monday night in a critical Golden State Athletic Conference game in Murchison Gymnasium.
“This is one of the toughest loses I’ve had in my coaching career,” said Westmont head coach John Moore. “Give credit to Azusa for the way they finished the game. I thought free throws and turnovers hurt us late in the game.”
Warrior point guard Chris Jackson takes a look at his options against Azusa Pacific on Monday.
With 2:55 left, Dan Rasp (21 points) hit a jumper to put the Warriors up seven. At that point it seemed third place in GSAC and an at-large bid to the national tournament was in their grasp. But that’s when things started to fall apart for the Warriors.
Marshall Johnson (19 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) hit back-to-back free throws, and then Reggie Owens (13 points, 8 rebounds) hit a layup to cut the lead to three. Mike Caffese (8 points, 3 steals) scored an old fashion three point play to tie up the game. The exclamation point came when Caffese stole the ball and gave a perfect lead pass to Dominique Johnson who scored the basket and drew the foul, thus capping a 10-0 run for the Cougars. After leading most of the game, the Warriors now trailed with by three with less than a minute to play.
Dan Rasp hit another jump shot with 39 seconds to play and eight seconds later the Warriors were able to steal the ball. But on that possession Westmont couldn’t find any holes in the Cougar defense. Caffese came up with another clutch steal to help seal the game. With three seconds left, Owens hit both of his free throws to give the Cougars a three point lead.
Warrior point guard Chris Jackson was able to get a shot off in the closing seconds, but it just didn’t find its way in the hoop.
Blake Bender had a double-double in front of standing room only crowd with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
Blake Bender had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Warriors.
“The fans were awesome,” said Bender. “They proved throughout the year that they’ve always been behind us. I appreciate the fans coming out and whiting out for us.”
All the students in attendance wore white T-shirts to help support their basketball team. It was by far the biggest crowd the Warriors had all season, officially 1321 fans were in attendance.
Jackson also had a double-double for the Warriors, registering 11 points and 10 assists.
The loss, combined with Fresno Pacific’s win against The Masters’ College, put Westmont at fifth in the final GSAC standings with a record of 21-8, 13-7. The Cougars climbed to third in conference at 21-9, 14-6. Traditionally, the GSAC only sends four teams to the national tournament. What this means is that Westmont’s best chance of making the National tournament would be to win the conference tournament.
The Warriors will play at Fresno Pacific on Thursday for the opening round of the GSAC tournament. Tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m.
