box score

SAN DIEGO -- A late run fell just short as Point Loma Nazarene fell to Westmont College 68-64 in its men's conference opener Saturday night at Golden Gymnasium.
 
Senior Rhett Beal and Westmont's Preston Branson each poured in 23 points to lead all scorers, but both teams had 20 or more turnovers in a sloppy game that came down to the wire. Junior Todd Campbell added 15 points to go along with 4 rebounds as the Sea Lions fell to 0-2 in Golden State Athletic Conference play.
 
The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes. A backdoor layup and a couple of 3-point plays from Beal put the Sea Lions up 15-8. But Westmont went on an 8-0 run to take the lead.
 
A 3-pointer from Beal gave the Green and Gold a 29-23 lead, but the Warriors roared back pouring in seven straight points for a 33-29 advantage with a minute left in the first half.
 
With the clock winding down, sophomore Hayden Lescault drained a jumper in traffic, and the Sea Lions entered the break down by just two points.
 
Both teams played a pretty sloppy first half, giving up 19 turnovers between them.  Beal led all scorers at the break with 15, shooting a perfect 5-5 from the field.
 
After a couple of scoreless minutes to open the half, Johnston stole the ball and made the fastbreak layup to tie the game.
 
For the next several minutes, Westmont held the lead. The Sea Lions kept cutting the lead to two only to see the Warriors push it up back to four.
 
Finally, another 3-point play, a steal and a fastbreak layup by Beal gave PLNU a 46-43 advantage.
 
But just as quickly as they stole the lead, the Sea Lions gave up eight straight points to go down 46-51 with 10 minutes left. Westmont pushed their lead to seven with three minutes left on a jumper by Nate Gibbs.
 
The Sea Lions seemed to have cut the lead to one with 55 seconds left on another 3-pointer by Beal, but the basketball was whistled off because Head Coach Bill Carr had called a timeout. After the inbounds, Lescault scored to slice the margin to two points..
 
Two Westmont free throws and another Beal basketball down low had PLNU still down 64-66 with 34 seconds left. Then Branson fell out of bounds while trying to call a timeout to give the Sea Lions the ball back.
 
Unfortunately, Beal was called for an offensive foul on the next possession, and Jordan Sachs made one of two free throws to put the Warriors back up 67-64 with 15 seconds to go.
 
Klassen dribbled down the floor and found senior Wil Bush outside the arch, but Bush narrowly missed the shot and Campbell fouled Chris Miller on the rebound. Miller made the clinching free throw to put the final margin at 68-64.
 
Both teams collected 24 rebounds on the night, but PLNU's poor shooting and turnovers greatly contributed to the loss. The Warriors outshot the Sea Lions 61-48 percent from the field, 60-25 percent from long range and 83-58 percent on free throws.
 
The loss drops the Sea Lions to 4-2 overall, 0-2 GSAC. Westmont moved to 7-2 overall and to 1-1 in the GSAC. Next, PLNU will travel to Carson to take on CSU Dominguez Hills in an exhibition on Tuesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm.