Westmont's Caleb Pitts goes up for the shot against some tough defense from Pioneer's Mike Nakamura and Samir Ghia (left) looks to get the rebound.
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Tough loss, big win for Warriors
Weger leads the Falcons to back-to-back wins against Monta Vista and Cupertino
By Dick Sparrer
What started out to be a pretty dismal week for the Westmont boys basketball team turned out to be not so bad after all.
The Warriors stumbled early in the week, falling 62-43 to Pioneer to drop two games off the pace in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
But just when things may have looked their worst for the Warriors, they looked their best in a thrilling 61-48 victory over first-place Yerba Buena on Friday night.
Yerba Buena had beaten Leland earlier in the week to take over sole ownership of first place in the division. But Westmont lost to Pioneer the same night to drop two games behind YB and one behind the Chargers.
Westmont tightened the race considerably, though, with Friday's win over YB. The Warriors fought back from a 25-23 halftime deficit to outscore Yerba Buena 16-9 in the third period and 22-14 in the fourth to win by 13.
Yerba Buena enters the final week of the regular season in a virtual first-place tie with Leland. YB is 8-2 with two games to play, and Leland is 9-2 with one game remaining.
Westmont is close behind at 8-3 with just one game left. The Warriors will host San Jose on Feb. 16, 7 p.m.
Caleb Pitts poured in 26 points, and Erik Cisler canned 17 to lead the Warriors to the clutch win over YB last week. Pitts had three three-pointers among his eight field goals and added seven points at the free-throw line.
Clay Tolbert canned three threes on his way to 11 points in the win. Vincent Chung added five points, and Daniel Sherburne hit two.
Cisler ended with 12 points, including a couple of threes, but Westmont dropped a 62-43 nod to Pioneer earlier in the week. Sherburne had nine points, Chung and Pitts eight apiece and Tolbert six.
Eddie Lewis led Pioneer to the win with 17 points. Mike Nakamura tossed in 14 points, and Kevin Mack joined the two in double digits with 12. Mack and Lewis each hit four three-pointers.
Over in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, Saratoga won twice to keep its title hopes flickering, thanks to a 37-36 win by Fremont over first-place Lynbrook.
The Falcons beat Monta Vista 51-37 in overtime, then turned back Cupertino 79-57 to improve to 8-2 in the division and 22-3 for the year.
Lynbrook lost by a point to Fremont to slip to 9-1 in division play.
Micah Weger pitched in 25 points, including a three, to lead the Falcons past Monta Vista early in the week. Mike Crosby added nine points, Scott Snider, Todd Anderson and A.J. Peper hit four each, Robert Kim and Tony Kau had two apiece, and Alexi Sevastapoulus hit one.
Weger came back with a huge 32-point performance in the win over Cupertino on Friday night. Weger had four threes among his seven field goals, and he canned 14 free throws.
Peper finished in double figures with 11 points, and Crosby and Anderson had 10 points apiece.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
