The Westmont men’s basketball team had a rough start to the Golden State Athletic Conference on Tuesday night. The Warriors (2-1, 0-1) traveled to Riverside to take on California Baptist (3-0, 1-0) but lost 86-61.
Freshman forward Dan Rasp led the Warriors’ scoring with 13 points, making five of six shots from the floor and three of four from the free-throw line. Rasp also had three rebounds. Junior Nasa Sete scored 12 points for Westmont and added four rebounds and three assists.
Westmont opened the scoring with a layup by senior forward Drew Benac but was quickly answered on the opposite end with a layup by Marquis Kennedy. Sophomore forward John Miller put the Warriors up 4-2 with another layup, but it was the last lead the Warriors would hold.
After a 9-0 run by the Lancers, junior guard Colin Hofer hit a three-point shot to pull the Warriors to within four points. Rasp connected on a free throw to make the score 11-8 before Cal Baptist guard Dave Cernin (13 points) nailed a three-pointer. Junior guard Tyler Dutton pushed the Warriors back to within four points on a layup, but the Lancers went on another 9-0 run to make the score 23-10 at the midway point of the first half. By half time, the Lancers had opened up a 46-27 margin. In the second half, Westmont got no closer than 17 points.
Westmont produced a 52.2 field goal percentage for the game, but surrendered 22 turnovers, compared to 17 for California Baptist. The significant difference on the stat sheet was in the 48.4 percent long-range shooting by the Lancers, who made 15 three-point field goals of 31 attempts. Westmont managed only three of 12 (25.0 percent).
California Baptist was lead by forward Mark Roussin, who produced 21 points and 10 rebounds. Forward Matt Gonzalez had 17 points and five rebounds.
The Warriors return to action Tuesday when they travel to No. 8 Azusa Pacific (3-2, 0- 1) for a 7:30 p.m. game.
Ron Smith is Westmont College‘s sports information director.