Westmont senior captain Sean Harman scored 25 points and made a clutch follow shot in the final seconds to give the Warriors a 74-72 men’s basketball victory over William Jessup in the Golden State Athletic Conference opener on Thursday at Murchison Gym.
With the game tied 72-72, Jerry Karczewski handled the ball and pulled up for a deep three pointer. His shot was short and just barely nicked the front of the rim. But Harman was there to quickly grab the ball and lay it back in with less than three seconds remaining.
Harman had seven rebounds and four assists.
“Where would we be without Sean Harman?” Westmont coach John Moore said. “He was more than good, he was fantastic. He does so many things for us.”
Westmont (11-3, 1-0 GSAC) found itself down 11-2 in the first four and a half minutes and trailed 36-32 at halftime against a solid William Jessup team (14-3, 0-1 GSAC).
“I thought our guys really weathered the storm in the first half,” Moore said. “William Jessup went up big early and we made some changes and battled back. I thought those guys who came in off the bench really helped us. Matt Ramon played an outstanding six minutes for us and played with great poise. I thought Tristan Lloyd did some really important things for us. This was without Kyle Scalmanini. Kyle would have made a big difference tonight with the kind of things he does to make things easy for us. It’s a great win tonight with him down.”
Westmont attacked the rim all game and it proved to pay off in the second half. It got to the bonus early with 13:24 remaining in the game.
After Olisa Nwachie hit two free-throws, Westmont’s defense got a stop, and Harman nailed a three to give it an eight point lead.
Nwachie finished with a double-double, scoring 11 points and pulling down 10 boards. He also added three blocks to his line.
Karczewski broke a scoring drought by hitting a three with 1:28 remaining, putting Westmont up 69-67. William Jessup tied the game with two free throws from Brennan Rakoz.
Ben Okhotin missed a three-point attempt but Nwachie grabbed the offensive rebound and strongly laid the ball in while getting fouled in the process. He went on to make the free throw, finishing the 3-point play to put Westmont up 72-69 with 33 seconds remaining.
William Jessup came down and hit a game-tying trey with 24 seconds remaining before Harman came through in the clutch for Westmont.
William Jessup tried to lob a half-court pass but it was deflected and rolled across the court as time expired.