After falling behind by 11 points in the second half, Westmont Men’s Basketball (4-1) rallied on the road to post a 76-69 win over the Bulldogs of the University of Redlands (0-3) on Tuesday night.
Preston Branson led the Warriors in scoring with 25 points, making seven of 13 from the field. Nate Gibbs tallied 16 points and five rebounds while C.J. Miller added 13 points and six rebounds.
“We had a phenomenal free throw shooting night going 27 of 30,” said Westmont head coach John Moore. “Nate Gibbs was especially good late in game making eight of nine from the line and most of those clutch free throws down the stretch. Preston Branson was 10 of 11 and Jordan Sachs was seven of eight.”
The Warriors trailed by six points at halftime and were down by 11 (52-41) with 13 minutes remaining on the second-half clock. A three-pointer by Branson sparked a 10-3 run that drew the Warriors to within four (55-51) with 10:19 to play. After trading points over the next two minutes of play, C.J. Miller landed one of his three buckets from beyond the arc to pull the Warriors to within one point 60-59.
Two free throws by Jack Colston restored a three-point advantage to the Bulldogs, but a jumper by Hornbuckle brought the Warriors back to within one at 62-21. Branson then laid the ball in the basket and Gibbs followed with a jumper to put the Warriors up 65-62 with 5:42 to go. Two of Branson’s free throws gave Westmont a 67-62 lead before Ian Gordon scored from downtown for Redlands to make it a 67-65 game with 3:39 remaining.
From that point on, Westmont outscored Redlands 9-4 with all of the Warriors points coming from the charity stripe – six of which were by Gibbs.
Westmont will head up to the Bay Area after Thanksgiving to take part in the Lamont Ramsey Tournament at Menlo College. On Friday, Westmont will take on CSU Maritime at 2:00 and then play Menlo on Saturday at 4:00.
