SANTA CRUZ — Westmont’s aggressive defensive efforts threw salt on the Santa Cruz Banana Slugs on Thursday in a 66-50 non-conference victory for the Warriors.
Thankfully, the Warriors were anything but sluggish as they took the court this evening. They were playing well-rounded and focused basketball the entire time. “From the very beginning, we played really good defense that held our opponents to just 16 points in the first half. In turn, we were up by 20 at the half which gave us an advantage that helped us eventually walk away with another road win,” opened John Moore.
Westmont was performing well both offensively and defensively throughout the game. By halftime, the Warriors were shooting at a 48 percent clip from the field, sinking 14 of their 19 shots.
While the team’s offense was sound, defense is what won this game tonight. “Nate Marsing led our defense tonight. He was spectacular on the court. He scored eight points, had six defensive rebounds and truly was the captain of our ship this evening,” raved Moore after the game. “We knew that #12 (Jared Ponce) was their leading scorer, so we put Nate on top of him tonight. Ponce has been averaging almost 16 points per game and Nate held him to a total of four. Nate’s defense was ferocious and he didn’t even allow Ponce to make a basket from the field, all four of his points came from free throws.”
Marsing is a fundamentally sound player who continues to lead this team well. As usual, he was joined by his senior co-captain Daniel Carlin who finished with a team high of 12 points and six rebounds. “Daniel was great in the second half for us tonight,” exclaimed Moore. Carlin used his size and athleticism to his advantage tonight as he went on a roll to score the first eight points of the second half—making the point differential that much more drastic.
Other good performances came from Cory Blau (11 points, 4 assists) and Kyle Gordon (10 points, 4 rebounds). Overall, Westmont was 24 for 50 from the field (48 percent) and ended with a grand total of 40 team rebounds.
The Warriors (11-6, 3-1 GSAC) are now heading back to Westmont where they will take on San Diego Christian on Thursday January 15 at 7:30 p.m.
