CAMPBELL — All it took for Westmont to seize control of its game Thursday night against Willow Glen was 16 minutes.
In a game that started earlier than usual at the Warriors’ home gym, one team looked ready to dominate from the get-go. And that team was wearing the home whites.
Westmont led by seven after a quarter and stretched it to 18 at the half, suffocating Willow Glen’s offense while pouring on more than enough scoring of its own in a 66-53 win.
The Warriors went up 35-17 at the half and never led by less than 10 points after the break.
“One of the things I wrote on the board was, ‘Outwork, outhustle, grind and get every loose ball,’” Westmont coach John Franza said. “And I thought in the first half, we got just about every loose ball. And that’s what matters. I mean, especially a team like that that thrives on turnovers, if we’re not going to turn it over, we’re going to get a good look.”
Westmont (16-2) got 21 points each from its star duo of big man Gabe Mathiesen and guard Jacob Froman, then clamped down on a Willow Glen (17-2) offense that was missing starters Wyatt Ahlbrand and Miles Ingram due to illness.
“That’s 32 points that was at home sick tonight,” Willow Glen coach Patrick Judge said. “That’s tough for any team. I was proud of my guys. They battled.”
After a four-point play by Brayden Gumabo, Willow Glen cut the deficit to 43-33 late in the third quarter to produce a brief glimmer of hope. But Westmont responded with two made free throws by Kaden Yamada and a layup by Ian Strathmeier to put the game back out of reach.
“We want to up the tempo,” Franza said. “We want to get easy baskets and easy shots. We know that if we run our stuff, we’ll get good looks.”
The Warriors also know that Mathiesen and Froman will come through for them. Mathisen was a dominant presence in the interior while also stretching his offensive game out to the 3-point line, and Froman consistently penetrated the paint and collapsed Willow Glen’s defense to generate good looks for himself and his teammates.
“I’ve been coaching for a long time. They’re the best duo I’ve ever had,” Franza said. “And it’s a credit to them, because between last year and this year, they worked their ass off. They really put together a plan for them to get better. Not that we weren’t part of it. We did a lot of things during the summer.
“But their individual work with their strength and conditioning guy that we use, they’ve come a long way. Come a long way. They’re two very good basketball players, and they’re the heart and soul for us.”
For Willow Glen, the loss doesn’t spell the end of any meaningful aspirations. The Rams still lead the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division by a game, though their 16-game winning streak was snapped.
But in the enrollment-based divisional alignment in the Central Coast Section, the Rams know they will be in Division II barring an unexpected leap to the Open Division. All their goals are still ahead of them.
“Turnovers hurt us tonight a little bit,” Judge said. “Those are run killers, right? We get a stop, come down, turn it over and give them an opportunity on the other end. But hat’s off to Westmont. We’ll be just fine. When we get healthy, we’ve got a week now. We have a bye, and we’ll be back ready on Thursday.”
Brayden Gumabo led Willow Glen with 20 points, and Elijah Jackson had 12.
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