Short-Handed SCC Falls to Westmont

There were plenty of reasons for the Southern California College men’s basketball team to go down meekly to Westmont Wednesday.

That visiting Westmont had to fight off the Vanguards for a 68-58 victory in the first round of the Golden State Athletic Conference tournament says plenty about the SCC team.

The Vanguards, winners of eight conference games in a row at one point, had slumped badly in the last two weeks, losing three in a row before Wednesday. Worse, they were missing all-conference point guard Adam Dzierzynski and reserve forward Brian Carlson because of injuries.

Dzierzynski (torn cartilage in knee) and Carlson (sprained ankle) were injured Saturday in SCC’s final regular-season game, a 94-85 loss at Westmont.

Early in Wednesday’s game, sixth-seeded Westmont (14-16) appeared ready to run away with an easy victory, leading, 38-27, at the half. But SCC’s work rate was furious and the third-seeded Vanguards (21-11) held Westmont scoreless for the first 5 minutes 56 seconds of the second half.

SCC clawed back into contention with aggressive defense and second and third efforts on the offensive boards, but didn’t have enough offensive firepower to catch Westmont.

“I think our kids played with a lot of heat and a lot of commitment,” SCC Coach Bill Reynolds said. “We just didn’t execute as well as we might have with Adam playing. But we made up for a lot with our emotional play.”

Three times SCC pulled within three points, the latest on a 17-foot jumper by Terence Wilborn with 6:02 left, but the Vanguards couldn’t get closer.

Their biggest problem was a terrible night of shooting. SCC shot 34.4% from the field, 13 percentage points below its season average. Worse, SCC made only two of 18 three-pointers, both in the final 38 seconds by Justin McIntee.

In another tournament game:

Concordia 66, Fresno Pacific 61--Kalim Scott had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Rick Haywood scored 13 points and Greg O’Hagan had 12 as the fifth-seeded Eagles (14-16) beat fourth-seeded Fresno (17-13).

Concordia advances to the semifinals to play second-seeded Biola, a 74-63 winner over Point Loma Nazarene, Saturday at Whittier College.