Westmont Men’s Basketball (10-8, 7-5 PacWest) won a thriller in Murchison Gym on Thursday night by a score of 75-70 over the Hawaii Pacific Sharks (12-5, 8-4).
In doing so, Westmont swept the season series over the Sharks after beating them for the second time in a week. It took all 40 minutes but when it was all said and done, the win couldn’t wipe even a crooked smile off the Warriors’ faces.
Westmont went into the break trailing 34-31 after a half in which they shot just 38.2% as a team (13-34), including a three of 13 mark from beyond the arc.
After 20 minutes Jarrett Bryant had 13 points on six of 11 shootings, but the rest of the Warriors made just seven of 23 attempts from the field. HPU shot just a tick under 50%, but also made just six of 17 from three-point land.
Westmont’s big advantage in the first half was on the boards, where the Warriors grabbed 25 compared to the Sharks’ 14. Eleven offensive rebounds highlighted Westmont’s work on the glass, where Trey Thompson and Bryant each grabbed a trio following a teammate’s miss.
A four-minute dry spell during the half’s final ten minutes saw a two-point lead turn into a seven point deficit at one point, but Thompson converted an acrobatic layup as the first-half buzzer went off to keep Westmont within a possession entering intermission.
The Warriors still trailed by four over the first five minutes of the half, before Chase Collins hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to sway the game’s momentum for a moment (45-43, 14:43).
Back and forth the sides swung however, with HPU holding on 54-51 at the game’s next media timeout (10:52). After a few empty possessions for Westmont, Leslie was then forced to call timeout himself, as a 7-0 run by HPU saw the Warriors trailing 58-51 with 8:53 remaining.
Westmont would trail by as many as eight (61-53) before a 7-0 run was highlighted by a three-pointer from Mandel to make it a one-point game. With just over four minutes to play Mandel hit another big shot, this time an elbow jumper to put Westmont up 66-65 for their first lead of the final ten minutes.
At that point, Mandel had made four of five from the field during the second half. An HPU trip to the line with 3:37 to play allowed the Sharks to go back up by a point (67-66), and after another failed trip on the other end, an HPU three saw the Sharks lead 70-66 in a blink.
Bryant responded once more, however, with another big-time shot from downtown to make it a one-point game with 2:10 remaining. A Westmont turnover with 90 seconds remaining made for some tense moments down the stretch, but a stop on defense once again gave Westmont a chance to flip the script in the game’s final minute.
Once more it was Mandel, landing an electrifying three-pointer to put Westmont up 72-70 with under a minute to play. It was his fifth make in six tries during the half.
After another HPU turnover, Westmont drained their entire shot clock, before an acrobatic floater from Braedon Bigott iced the game 74-70 in favor of Westmont. Then, with 0.2 seconds remaining, some fireworks flew when an errant elbow by an HPU player resulted in an ejection, and more notably in a knocked out tooth for Westmont’s Chase Collins.
Given the circumstances, Collins showed a mature amount of restraint to not escalate the situation any further, instead understandably letting out a few howls in frustration as he walked away from the scene. Then, Collins quickly began gathering himself before searching the floor for what was now lost.
Collins scoured the floor for his missing tooth, found it under the opposing basket and then, for good measure, landed a shot at the free throw line to make it a 75-70 final.
Bryant finished with 24 points on 10 of 16 shooting, while Mandel finished with an even 20 himself. Bryant also led the team with 11 rebounds and four assists. As a team, Westmont out-rebounded HPU 40-26.
After shooting under 40% in the first half, Westmont shot at a torrid 65.4%-pace in the second half (17-26). That hot half meant Westmont ended up an even 50% on the night (30-60).
“Give Hawaii Pacific a lot of credit,” said Westmont head coach Justin Leslie, “They played a fantastic game, especially on the defensive side of the ball, disrupting our rhythm non-stop. Luckily we had enough shots, and grabbed enough offensive rebounds to give ourselves some extra possessions.
“That final nine minutes I thought our team did a great job of digging our heels in defensively. We were finally able to string some strops together to bust up their rhythm, and then down the stretch it was just about making plays.”
“Jarrett Bryant, Aidan Mandel, and Braedon Bigott amongst others just did a great job of making baskets when it counted,” continued Leslie. “It was a very hard-fought win, and I was very proud of the guys to earn a victory that moves us up in the standings.”
Westmont’s homestand will continue on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., when the Warriors play host to the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans.