Westmont senior Blake Bender tallied 25 points and 12 rebounds in his thirteenth double-double of the year and sophomore Preston Branson added another 25 points, but it wasn’t quite enough as the Warriors (20-9, 12-8) fell to #3 Concordia (27-3, 19-1 GSAC) by a score of 101-87 on Saturday night in Murchison Gymnasium.
Despite the loss, Westmont head coach John Moore was pleased with his team’s performance.
“I thought our guys were bold,” said Moore. “I thought they played with great effort. I thought we executed well. We played against a team that is a top-five team in the nation. (Concordia’s) Justin Johnson looked like one of the top-five players in the nation. But Blake Bender and Preston Branson are not too far behind.
“Blake looked like a senior who did not want to loose his last regular season home game,” continued the coach. “I thought Preston played with a lot of moxie as well.”
Johnson scored 33 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead the Eagles. Taylor King added 17 points and eight rebounds while Austin Simon tallied another 17 points.
The Warriors fell behind by as much as eleven points in the first half, but by halftime had narrowed the margin to just two. With five second remaining on the first-half clock, Dan Rasp (14 points, 3 rebounds) drove the lane for a lay-up and added one on a free throw to make the score 44-42.
Rasp scored one another layup shortly after the resumption of play to even the game at 44-all. Westmont played with a single digit for the next 12 minutes, but eventually succumbed to the Eagles’ firepower.
Both teams made 32 field goals in the contest, but Concordia made ten of its shots from beyond the three-point arc while Westmont managed just one. Free throw shooting also proved to be a difference. While Westmont made 75.9% (22 of 29) of its attempts from the charity stripe, Concordia made 84.4% (27 of 32). Defensively, the Eagles won the battle of the boards 40-30.
Westmont finishes the Golden State Athletic Conference tied with Fresno Pacific (19-10, 12-8) for fourth place in the GSAC standings, just as it did last year. Unlike last year, the Warriors will host the Sunbirds in the first round of the GSAC Tournament. Westmont earned the tiebreaker by virtue of its victory over Biola on January 25. The Warriors lost to Fresno Pacific last Tuesday by a score of 75-58.
“I thought we played about a hundred times better than we played in Fresno on Tuesday,” said Moore of tonight’s game. “I think we will build on this game and have a lot of confidence going into the game against Fresno Pacific. They are a team that is hard to play against, but I think our guys will be very motivated going into that game.”
The Warriors and Sunbirds will square off on Thursday night in Murchison Gymnasium. In other GSAC Tournament first round action, Concordia, the GSAC’s number one seed, will host The Master’s (13-17, 6-14). Second seeded and sixth ranked Azusa Pacific (26-4, 17-3) will play host to California Baptist (14-15, 8-12) and #12 Biola (26-4, 16-4), the third seed, will host Point Loma Nazarene (14-15, 10-10).
