Westmont men’s basketball suffered a 94-89 loss to #23 Fresno Pacific in the first round of the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament. The loss means that Westmont’s last chance for advancing to the NAIA Tournament lies in receiving an at-large bid.
Two-time All-GSAC selection Dan Rasp led the Warriors with 28 points on 10-13 shooting from the floor and three other Warriors scored in double-digits. Matt LeDuc had 15 points and four rebounds. Blake Bender recorded 14 points and seven boards and Andrew Schmalbach added another 13 points.
Chris Jackson recorded double-digits in the assists column and also had eight points.
Westmont jumped out to a 17-6 lead in the first five minutes of the game. While Fresno Pacific made several attempts to narrow the margin and did cut it to just one point (29-28) with 5:30 to play, the Warriors were able to bounce back and take a 10 point advantage into the locker room (47-37).
“The difference was our inability to get defensive stops,” said Westmont Head Coach John Moore. “We scored 89 points which should have been enough, but they scored 57 points in the second half. Evan Haines and Blake Bender were both in foul trouble and defensively we just couldn’t stop them.”
Because of foul trouble, Haines played only ten minutes of the game including only 1:41 in the second half. The Warriors outrebounded the Sunbirds in the first half 14-9, but Fresno Pacific posted a 12-9 advantage on the boards in the second half.
Fresno Pacific did not take over the lead until Jordan Wild (14 points) made two free throws with 6:02 remaining in the second half to give the Sunbirds a 72-71 advantage. Dan Rasp responded with a jumper to put the lead back into Warrior hands, but Todd Brown (13 points) scored from beyond the arc to recapture the lead for the Sunbirds. Westmont never led again.
Fresno Pacific will advance to the semifinals on Saturday at Biola to take on Concordia in a 7:30 p.m. game. Concordia defeated Point Loma Nazarene tonight by a score of 74-69. In the 5:30 p.m. semifinal game, Azusa Pacific will take on Biola. The Cougars earned a semifinal berth with an 80-56 victory over The Master’s. Biola advanced on the basis of a 65-51 win over California Baptist.
Winners on Saturday will advance to Tuesday’s championship game, also at Biola.
Westmont, which received the thirtieth most votes in the final NAIA rankings, will have to wait until the conclusion of 11 other post-season tournaments to see if they will be attending the 32-team national tournament in Kansas City.
In 2007, the Warriors had received the thirty-first most votes and had turned in their uniforms before learning that they would receive and at-large bid. The last conference tournament games are on Tuesday, March 9 and it will not likely be until then that the Warriors will know if basketball remains in their future for this season.
