November 25, 2023
WU Visits Lions, Conference Play Up Next
The Westcliff men's basketball team played against the Vanguard University Lions on Wednesday in search of their first win this season.
A strong first half for the Lions was too much for the Warriors who fell with a final score of 86-74.
A couple of missed shots early on saw the Warriors get behind in the score, 10-5.
But a pair of free throws from Rayven Turner and a jump shot from Justin Boateng gave Westcliff a one-point lead of 11-10, five minutes into the first half.
Marius Ntwari's layup pushed it to a three-point lead as the Warriors kept battling hard against the home team.
But the Lions would go on a run of their own and with five minutes left in the first half had flipped the momentum and were up 33-24.
The Warriors three-point shots weren't falling in the first half as they went 2-11.
By the time the whistle blew signaling half-time, the Warriors were staring at a double-digit deficit, 41-30.
They shot 44% from the field and had gone 6-7 from the free-throw line.
In contrast, Vanguard made 51% of their field goals and went 5-8 from beyond the arc.
With another half to play, Westcliff came out of the locker room with the right energy and went back and forth for the majority of the 20 minutes.
But unfortunately, they needed to score more points than the Lions in order to overcome the deficit.
The Warriors scored 44 points to Vanguard's 45 in the second half.
Jamal Briscoe had a solid game scoring 14 points, with four assists, and four rebounds.
Briscoe was 50% from the field and made 4-5 of his free throw attempts.
Marques Sales nearly had a double-double with 14 rebounds and nine points.
Ray Witt Jr had a strong game off the bench with 13 points and swished three from beyond the arc.
It hasn't been the start to the season that Westcliff would have liked but the schedule was planned in order to challenge them early on before they played against conference opponents.
The Warriors (0-3) will try to get their first win when they play against Cal Maritime on Thursday, November 30th for the start of the Cal Pac Conference schedule.
The reigning champs will play their first home game on Tuesday, December 5th, against Saint Katherine.