Southern Oregon Edges Warriors

Despite a double-double from Olisa Nwachie, #12 Westmont Men's Basketball (5-1) suffered its first loss of the season. The Warriors fell 72-66 to Southern Oregon (5-2) in the first game of the Bud Presley Classic at Menlo College.

Cory Blau led the Warriors in scoring with 16 point while Jerry Karczewski added another 15 to the Warrior cause. Nwachie tallied 13 points and 12 rebounds.

The Raiders scored the first five points of the game on a three-pointer by Jordan Hunt (20 points) and a layup by Tristen Holmes (14 points). However, that 5-0 advantage proved to be the largest lead by either team in the first half of play.

Westmont answered back with a three by Blau and a jumper by Nwachie to knot the game up at five. Down 11-10 with just over 14 minutes remaining in the opening frame, Stefan Inouye (5 points) drained a long-range bucket and followed that up with a layup to give Westmont what would prove to be its largest lead of the game at 15-11.

A 10-2 run by Southern Oregon put the Raiders up 21-17. Westmont responded with a three-pointer by Karczewski and a layup by Blau to briefly take a 22-21 advantage. Ben Desaulnier (15 points) struck from beyond the arc to restore the lead to the Raiders before Blau answered in kind to make the score 25-24 with 7:56 remaining on the first-half clock.