COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GOLDEN STATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE ROUNDUP : Concordia Tops Westmont, Ends Skid

Concordia, reeling after three consecutive Golden State Athletic Conference men’s basketball losses, regained its balance by hanging on to beat first-place Westmont, 88-86, before 1,750 Saturday at Concordia.

The Eagles (19-4, 3-3 in conference) beat Chapman by two points Thursday in a nonconference game to stop a three-game skid, but that would have been small consolation had they lost their homecoming game Saturday.

Westmont (14-5, 5-1) was the conference’s only undefeated team and appeared to be taking control when it went on a 11-1 run to finish the first half with a 39-34 lead.

But Concordia forward Pharoah Jones said his team wasn’t about to give up.

“We came back out and played even harder, and we came out with the victory,” said Jones, who scored 16 of his 27 points in the second half. “We needed it.”

Despite leading by 10 with 1 minute 18 seconds left, the Eagles nearly didn’t get it.

Westmont made a relentless rally and cut the lead to two on a three-point shot by Zak DeMatteo with 16 seconds left. After Concordia’s Tarik James made two free throws at the 14-second mark, Westmont’s Sean Martin missed a three-pointer with seven seconds left and the ball bounced out of bounds under the basket to the Warriors.

On the inbounds play with five seconds left, Martin bounced the ball off the back of Concordia’s Craig Martin, grabbed it and made a layup to cut the deficit to two, 88-86, with 2.7 seconds left.

Then Concordia’s Jeff Putnam passed the length of the court to Jones, who passed to Craig Martin for a dunk after the buzzer.

Concordia put itself in position to win with torrid shooting--the Eagles made 67.9% (19 of 28) of their field goals in the the second half. Jones made seven of eight shots in the half and 12 of 14 for the game, mostly on short inside moves. Concordia also made 15 of 17 free throws in the second half, 12 of 14 in the final 2:13.

Putnam had 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

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In another Golden State Athletic Conference men’s game:

Cal Baptist 88, Southern California College 85--Chauncey Woolridge scored 21 points, Jon Naro had 17 and Kevin Carlson 16 for Southern California College (12-11, 2-4), which led 38-37 at the half.