Jarrett Bryant led a balanced scoring attack to spark Westmont to a 77-58 win over Chaminade in a PacWest Conference men’s basketball game at Murchison Gym on Saturday night.
Bryant scored 18 points to lead four Warriors in double figures. Braedon Bigott finished with 16 points, Davon Smith 11 and Trey Thompson 10. Aidan Mandel finished just shy of a double-double, scoring eight points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds.
Westmont improved to 6-4 overall and 3-1 in the PacWest while Chaminade suffered its first conference loss (4-1) and fell to 5-4 overall.
“We had one day to prepare because of finals at Westmont,” said Westmont head coach Justin Leslie. “There are a lot of really good students on the team that care about doing well, so we made it a point not to overwhelm them because of how heavy this load can be.
“I was really concerned about how you can fall into the trap of overtraining during finals week, which can lead to things like sleep deprivation. I thought it was more important for us to be mentally, rather than physically sharp this week, so we had a couple days off in the middle of the week. We had, essentially, a walk-through practice on Thursday, so that we could do it well on Friday. We had an hour of practice yesterday, and then we really just focused on ourselves.”
Early on, Westmont’s offense was highlighted by the play of Bryant, with the senior beginning his night by making five of seven from the field, including a pair of three-pointers. Bryant’s 12 early points bought time for the rest of the squad to find its footing offensively, something that has become a common theme early on.
The defense was relentless as it held Chaminade to a shooting percentage of just 25.8% (8-31).
“We had a pretty soft start to the game, being honest,'” said Leslie. “To quote Chaminade, our players were ‘shook’. At one of the media timeouts some of their guys were telling our players they were ‘shook’, and I agreed. I told the guys ‘we are’. They had us on our heels, and we just had to take a breath. We had to remember and realize the types of things and types of behaviors on the floor that lead to success in a game like this”
“Once we buckled down, it started slowly turning.”
The game’s momentum swung in totality in the final 3:30 of the first half, when the back-and-forth affair saw Chaminade lead 26-25 as the period entered its final minutes. What transpired over the final 2:45 of the half ultimately became an 11-0 run for Westmont, which was first sparked by a pair of baskets from Smith. He finished through some contact at the basket to give Westmont its one-point lead back. He then came away with a clean strip on the other end and carried it down the floor before muscling his way to the basket once more, forcing Chaminade into a timeout.
The stoppage did little to slow the Warriors, as another defensive stop turned into a quick layup from Trey Thompson. Another successful defensive stand was then followed by a three-pointer from Chase Collins, one that the transfer enjoyed for a moment in front of the opposing bench. An attempted three-pointer from Chaminade would not fall in the final ten seconds of the half, which then sent the Warriors on a downhill sprint against the buzzer. This time it was Braedon Bigott’s turn to convert at the basket, with the transfer converting a contested layup just ahead of the halftime horn, completing Westmont’s 11-0 run that sent them into intermission leading 36-26.
“I was really excited to see the depth of our team tonight,” reflected Leslie. “Our bench really stepped up against a team that presses a ton. We were able to withstand that pressure because of the depth of our roster tonight.
“During that decisive run Chaminade got tired. They were fatigued and there weren’t a lot of whistles and we just caught on two sub rotations where we had fresh legs. If you can get one or two of those kinds of runs, there’s a good chance you are going to win that game. Tonight, we got two of those.”
The second of those runs came when the three-point shot that evaded the Warriors for much of the first half finally began to fall in the second. It was triples from Bryant, Collins, and Tyson Monck that saw Westmont stretch its lead to as many as 13 with under 16 minutes to play. The Warriors began the second half three of five from beyond the arc, after making just three of 13 in the first. A minute later, JV Brown joined the party with Westmont’s fourth three of the half, this one putting the club up 14. Westmont’s bench really got the chance to roar two minutes later, when it was Smith who connected on a long-ball right in front of his teammates. Moments later, a basket from Aidan Mandel put the Warriors up 21 entering a media timeout at the 11:45-mark.
By time of the penultimate media timeout, the Silverswords had trimmed just five points off of that deficit, with Westmont heading into the final minutes of the game still leading 69-53. Minutes after that, the Warriors remained steady and finished off Chaminade by a final of 77-58.
“It was just a very mature effort by the team tonight,” said Leslie. “We created all the separation that we needed, and we did what we had to do to finish this one off.”
After the holidays Westmont will resume their season on January 3, when the Warriors will host Azusa Pacific at 7:30 p.m.