With a new starting line-up in his game plan, Westmont head coach John Moore brought the Warrior into Murchison Gymnasium to begin play in the 36th Annual Tom Byron Classic. The Warriors (8-2) validated the new starting five with a 91-69 win over the Trojans (2-12) of Trinity International (Ill.).
“I like our new starting lineup and we will start again with that lineup,” said Moore, referring to tomorrow conclusion to the Tom Byron Classic. “Cooper Damron and Nate Gibbs performed well, especially on the boards.”
With the win, Westmont advances to the championship game where they will meet up with UC Merced. The Bobcats (1-4) earned their spot in the final game with an 88-79 upset win over British Columbia (11-6).
“If you had told me that we were going to play UC Merced on the second day of the Byron, I would have thought we would have lost in the first round,” said Moore. “I thought there was a greater chance of us losing than UC Merced beating British Columbia. But after watching the game, UC Merced looked like the better team for most of that game.”
Tied at 27-all with six minutes to play in the first half, UC Merced constructed a 13-2 run to take their first double-digit lead of the game (40-29) with 2:09 left before intermission. The Bobcats took an eight-point advantage (44-36) into the locker room at halftime.
British Columbia scored on a layup by Tommy Nixon and a three-pointer by Nakai Luyken to start the second half, bringing the Thunderbirds to within three. But that proved to be as close as British Columbia would get. UC Merced scored the next eight points to make it a 52-41 game with 15:26 to go.
With six minutes remaining, the Thunderbirds pulled to within four points on a jumper by Nathan Yu, but the Bobcats’ Aki Chambers answered with a three and a jumper and Kevin Ellsworth added another field goal to put UC Merced up 79-68 with 5:10 left in regulation.
Chambers scored 31 points and tallied 10 rebounds to lead the Bobcats. George Idehen and Daniel Castillo each added 16 points with Idehen adding nine rebounds, six assists and three steals. The Thunderbirds were led in scoring by Doug Plumb with 18 points. Yu scored 16 points and pulled down seven boards. Nixon added 13 points while Balraj Bains contributed 10 points.
The second game was a contrast to the first as the Warriors never trailed. Five minutes in, the Warriors held an 11 point lead (16-5), which they extended to a 14-point margin by the intermission (42-28). Before two minutes ticked off the clock in the second half, Westmont was up by 20 (50-30). Westmont led by no less than 15 the rest of the game.
Landon Boucher came off the bench to lead the Warriors in scoring with 17 points.
“Landon played with a lot of confidence,” noted Moore. “I just said to the guys the more you talk on the floor, the more success you will have. Landon was really chatty on the floor. It was the loudest I’ve ever seen him and it was the best all-around game he has ever played in a Warrior uniform.”
Cooper recorded his first double-double as a Warrior, putting up 13 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Nate Gibbs added 11 points and five rebounds. The Trojans were led by Andres Marmolejo with 13 points and six rebounds.
The Warriors shot 49.3 percent (34 of 69) from the floor including 33.3 percent (6 of 18) from beyond the arc.
The consolation game between British Columbia and Trinity International will be played at three o’clock on Friday with the championship match-up scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
“UC Merced is going to be a challenge,” said Moore. “They just earned their program’s first win and they will be looking to make it two wins and a championship. There is a huge size difference and we are going to see if we can rebound and take advantage of the inside play that is given you with a size advantage. We will also look for kick-out threes, which are the easiest of threes to make since they are often uncontested.”
The Warriors will come to Kammerer Court tomorrow seeking their twenty-first Tom Byron Classic championship trophy.
