A furious second-half rally fell short and Westmont suffered its first men’s basketball loss of the season, dropping a 72-63 decision against Oregon’s Warner Pacific at the Hope International Classic on Tuesday in Fullerton.
The Warriors cut a 20-point deficit to three, 66-63. But Warner Pacific scored a layup with 43 seconds left and Westmont turned the ball over, forcing it to foul.
“I thought we showed a lot of fight,” Westmont coach John Moore said of the comeback. “That was nice to see.”
The Warriors are 6-1 on the season and Warner Pacific is 5-3.
“I thought Warner Pacific was the better team tonight,” Moore said. “I think the hardest thing to do in athletics is to have a good team lose by a large margin, and a good team win by a large margin and then play each other the next day. We looked like a team that was a little too full of ourselves.”
The Knights lost by 23 against Hope the previous night, while the Warriors won by 22 against La Sierra.
The Warriors led by seven in the first half, but Warner Pacific came back and took a seven-point advantage heading into halftime
The Warriors got into foul trouble in the second half.
“All our big guys got in foul trouble. We got pretty thin in the middle pretty quickly and when that happens you’re going to be in trouble,” said Moore
The Warriors get to enjoy Thanksgiving before heading north to Atherton to play in the Bud Presley Classic Friday and Saturday.