Furious rally comes up short for Westmont in two-point loss to San Francisco State
MONTECITO, Calif. - Westmont Men’s Basketball (0-3) came oh so close to sending their crowd home happy on Thursday night in Santa Barbara, but in the end, the San Francisco State Gators (2-1) held off a late-surging Warriors squad for a 71-69 win. The Warriors lived and died on three-pointers on Thursday, and unfortunately for the team, they made only one of their first 16 from beyond the arc, and four of 23 in total.
By the time a few triples did end up falling, the clock was not in Westmont’s favor as a near-perfect surge from the Warriors fell one basket short.
Individually, Adrian McIntyre continued to shine in his senior year with 25 points on nine of 14 shooting, including two of Westmont’s four three’s on the night. Aside from McIntyre, however, the Warriors woes continued with not a single other player scoring in double-figures. Besides McIntyre, the rest of the Warriors collectively shot 16 of 46 from the field, a 34.8% clip.
The Warriors were also out-rebounded 33-23, with De’Undrae Perteete as the only Warrior with more than four rebounds (6). Mason Romano led the club with five assists, while the senior also contributed with seven points and five steals off the bench.
Westmont trailed SF State by six at halftime, and by as many as 18 with just 5:58 remaining in regulation (62-44). Westmont slowly began to chip away, and the Warriors were sparked by six points from Perteete as the club cut back within nine with 3:35 remaining (66-57).
A layup from McIntyre pulled Westmont within seven, and then a three-ball from Adrian sent The Murch into a frenzy with 2:27 left as the club pulled within four. The scene would only get more frantic moments later, when another three-pointer from McIntyre pulled Westmont within one point with 1:53 remaining (68-67).
When it came down to the final minute of action a turnover and foul from the Warriors gave the Gators a chance to go to the line, where SF State made one of two to go back up 71-69. Then, with three seconds remaining, the Warriors inbounded the ball quickly to Drew Ramirez who took a couple steps towards midcourt before calling a quick timeout.
With 1.5 seconds remaining, the Warriors gave the ball to Romano on the sideline, with a chance to potentially tie or win the contest with a successful pass-and-shoot play. The Gators had many of Romano’s options covered, forcing him to attempt to loft the ball from the near sideline, to the far corner of the gym in hopes of connecting with Ramirez.
The pass hung up just long enough for a Gators player to leap up alongside Ramirez in a play that mirrored an endzone corner route much more than a basketball play. While on a football field, there’s a good argument that the contact Ramirez wore could have warranted a flag for pass interference. Apparently, however, it was not enough to warrant a foul call on the Murchison Gym floor on Thursday night.
Ramirez and the Gator collided in mid-air, with neither coming away with the ball cleanly. When the ball ricocheted of their hands and fell to the floor the buzzer sounded, the Gators celebrated, and the Westmont faithful stood in shock, not wanting to accept that their Warriors’ last-ditch effort to steal a game came and went without so much a chance to shoot for it at the buzzer.
The Warriors will have eight days to lick their wounds before returning to action on November 22 in Nampa, Idaho, where Westmont will tip-off against Northwest Nazarene at 7:00 p.m. MST/6:00 p.m. PST. Links to live coverage will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.
(Article courtesy of Westmont Athletics)
