Playing in his home state of Washington, a little over an hour from his hometown of Bellevue, senior center Evan Haines put on a show for a large crowd of family and friends who came to see him play. Haines recorded a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds and made nine of 14 attempts from the floor as Westmont Men’s Basketball (3-0) defeated Evergreen State (0-2) 86-78 in Olympia.
Also recording a double-double was senior guard Blake Bender who tallied 16 points and 12 boards. Dan Rasp posted 22 points and eight rebounds while sophomore guard Preston Branson contributed 17 points and six rebounds.
“Last night we had some great performances off the bench,” said Westmont head coach John Moore. “Tonight, four of our five starters had really good nights for us.
The Warriors came into Saturday night’s game after defeating Northwest (Wash.) on Friday night 98-92 in a double overtime game.
“A little bit of what you worry about after an emotional win is how you are going to respond,” said Westmont head coach John Moore. “Evergreen State put up a 27-11 lead to start the game, but I felt confident that we would be able to chip into that lead. We went on a 28-12 run to finish the half and tie it at 39-all. The key to the second half is that we played pretty good defense, we crashed the offensive board and we shot 58.1 percent in the second half.”
Westmont shot 54.8 percent in the game compared to 36.4 for the Geoducks (goo-EE-duhks). The Warriors out-rebounded the bivalve mollusks 51-26. Nine steals helped give the saltwater clams a 20-8 turnover advantage.
Westmont returns home to host the Coyotes of Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday night at Murchison Gymnasium. Tip-off is scheduled for seven o’clock.
