Westmont Men’s Basketball received nineteen points each from junior guards Preston Branson and Jordan Sachs as the Warriors posted a 68-64 Golden State Athletic Conference win over the Hawks of San Diego Christian (6-13, 1-11 GSAC) on Saturday night.
Sachs, who was five for five from the field, added ten rebounds to record the first double-double of his collegiate career.
“We find a way to keep them close,” quipped Westmont head coach John Moore. “We played close games in November. We played close games in December. We played close games in January. Now we have played close games in February. We’ve won most of them. You always have to play close games in March. So it bodes well.”
With the win, Westmont improves to 17-4 overall and 9-3 in GSAC play. Because Biola (17-7, 7-5) defeated #16 Concordia (18-5, 8-4) by a score of 75-62 tonight and Hope International (10-9, 3-9) knocked off the #13 The Master’s (16-7, 8-4) by a margin of 60-58, Westmont is alone in first place in the GSAC standings for the third time this season.
“Jordan had a special night,” said Moore. “He played like he did at UCSB. He got put-backs for us. He delivered a couple of clutch threes. He rebounded for us.”
“I thought Niko had a very good first half,” continued Moore. “He did some really good things in attacking the rim. Jay Larinan got his first time in a tight game in the first half. He gave us some good minutes.”
At halftime, Westmont held a five point lead (27-22). After a three-pointer by the Hawk’s Raphael Rodriguez (10 points), the Warriors ran off a 10-0 run to take the first double-digit lead of the night (37-25) with 17 minutes remaining in regulation. With fourteen and one-half minutes left on the clock, the Warriors had increased their margin to 15 (42-27).
However, San Diego Christian battled back. With 2:05 left, Arturo Prieto (9 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists) nailed a three-pointer to make it a two-point game (57-55). C.J. Miller responded by laying the ball in the basket on the Warriors’ next possession, making it a 59-55 score with 1:54 remaining.
After missed shots by both teams, Miller stole the ball from Rodriguez. Sachs was fouled on the ensuing possession and sank two free throws to give Westmont a six-point cushion (61-55) with 49 seconds to play.
A layup by Rodriguez cut the Warrior lead to four, but Branson was fouled and made both of his attempts to return the point-spread to six (63-57) with 37 seconds to play. Then Rodriguez drilled a three to make it 63-60 with half a minute left.
Landon Boucher hit two more Warrior free throws before Keenan Patterson scored on a layup making in 65-62 with seven seconds left.
“It is hard to come off the bench and hit two big free throws when you need them,” said Moore. “I was encouraged by Landon’s ability to do that.
A free throw by Sachs made it a four point game before Patterson scored again for the Hawks to pull once more to within two; however, only a second remained. Brendan Hill had the honor of the last two free throws to account for the final score.
The Warriors will start the final third of the GSAC schedule on Tuesday night when they host the Eagles of Biola. The match-up will be the one-hundredth time the two teams have faced off on the basketball court. Westmont holds a slight 51-48 advantage. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.
