AZUSA — The Westmont men’s basketball season came to an abrupt end on Thursday evening as the Warriors fell 57-54 to Azusa Pacific in the quarterfinals of the Golden State Athletic Conference tournament.
The Warriors battled throughout and led for much of the second half before surrendering the lead with 10 seconds remaining on the clock.
“It was a great effort,” said Westmont head coach John Moore. “Efforts like this are wonderful to see, but you want to finish up on top. That is what is so disappointing. I thought our guys played well enough to win. We just couldn’t find a way to get that last one to fall.”
The Warriors started the game in a zone defense, which seemed to confound the Cougars.
“Our match-up zone really hurt them,” said Moore. “Our match-up was real active. We passed people on from one to the next. I thought we did a great job executing defensively throughout. Any time you hold a team to 57 points on their home court, you expect to win that game. I thought our defense was good and our intensity was good. When we had chances late in the game to close the game out, the ball just kind of fell off the rim.”
After battling to a 26-25 halftime score in favor of Azusa Pacific, Westmont quickly found itself 10 points down in the second half (35-25), with 16:03 left to play. However, the Warriors went on a 13-2 run to capture a 38-37 lead with 11:26 remaining in regulation.
From there, the score remained close until the Warriors took a five-point lead on a layup by C.J. Miller with 5:22 showing on the clock. Westmont struggled to score the rest of the way, but held onto the lead until Robert Sandoval scored on a lay-up to put the Cougars up 55-54 with 10 seconds remaining.
Niko Brooks dribbled the ball the length of the court, but his layup with two seconds left wouldn’t fall.
For four of the Warriors – T.J. Lipold, Landon Boucher, Nate Gibbs and Lucas Miller – the game marked the end of their Westmont basketball careers.
“I am so proud of T.J., Landon, Nate and Lucas,” said Moore. “They have been the heart and soul of this season. All of our strength came from our seniors. They played with the kind of energy that we need and the kind of heart that they played with all season long is what carried us into have a very nice season.”
