Saratoga News
Sports
Weimer leads Westmont to tourney title
By Kevin Sparrer
There is no greater feeling than winning your own tournament, except maybe scoring 29 points and pulling down 12 rebounds in the championship game of your own tournament.
Senior Michael Weimer did just that, playing a dominant role for Westmont in the final game of the 40th annual Westmont Invitational Basketball Tournament Fremont.
Weimer's 29 points included four three-pointers and seven points from the free-throw line, and his total accounted for nearly half of his team's offense and almost more than Fremont scored as a team in the 65-36 loss to Westmont on Dec. 1.
Not only that, but Weimer had 12 of the 18 points in the first quarter and 12 of the 14 points scored for the Warriors in the second quarter.
By beating Fremont in the finals, Westmont posted its fourth championship in its own tournament. The first three were in 1978, '90 and '95.
With the championship, Westmont earned four spots on the all-tournament team. Winning all-tourney honors for the Warriors were Weimer, Darrien Broadnax, Max Schneider and Spencer Smith. Joining them on the tourney dream team were Jeremy Allen and Sam Kesten of Fremont, Bo Nielsen and Steven Walker of Saratoga and Steven Skavdahl and Kyle Schroeder of Willow Glen.
The Firebirds had a small edge that lasted only a few minutes into the game before the dominant Westmont offense of Weimer and Smith ran away with the lead. Smith was a big contributor to the Warrior win, scoring 15 points with 12 coming from three-point range.
But as impressive as the offensive effort was for the Warriors, their defense was equally as solid.
"Something is going on with the defense," said Westmont head coach Bill Gerth. "We're holding teams in the 30s with the exception of Prospect, who scored 40. This team is very coachable and they're playing pretty hard, but it's early and all teams go in cycles. Hopefully this won't be our peak."
Freshman Dominic Arbet put up nine for the Warriors with three free throws. Schneider had five with a free throw, senior Broadnax had three with a free throw and sophomore James Weimer and junior Victor Razor-Thompson had two apiece.
To reach the final round of the tournament, Westmont downed Prospect 56-40 with M. Weimer again leading the attack with 29 points.
Broadnax added eight points, Schneider had seven including three from the line, senior Brian Bangs had six and both Arbet and J. Weimer sunk a three.
For the Panthers it was junior Natnael Taye who led the attack with 15 points, three at the line. Senior Zach Stevenson helped with eight including two free throws, while senior Jason Ohlhaver had six with two free throws and both senior Chris Kim and senior Kendall Hendon had four.
In the first game of the tournament, Westmont defeated Leland 66-30 with Broadnax leading the attack. Broadnax hit five from outside the arc, two from the line and totaled 23 points in the win. Schneider also hit a three and finished the game with nine points, along with Smith who hit a trio of threes for nine. M. Weimer had eight with two at the line, Arbet put up five with one at the line and senior Kevin Blakely had four.
Fremont had a more successful first two rounds of the tournament. In the second round, the Firebirds defeated Saratoga 56-46.
For the Falcons it was junior Keon Ghafouri who did the majority of the scoring with 15 points, six from the line and one three pointer. Nielsen was right there with Ghafouri, scoring 12 points of his own including five from the line. Walker added seven with three at the line, senior Sean Casserly had four with two free ones, senior P.J. Razaii and sophomore Owen Huang both had two and senior Kourosh Agahdel had one.
Fremont also defeated Willow Glen 54-42.
The Falcons were able to make an effort late in the tournament to take third place by defeating Prospect in the last round 61-46. Nielsen led the Saratoga offense with 10 points, including two threes and a free throw, while Ghafouri added 12 points with one outside the arc and four at the line. Senior Nick Valluri had 10 with two free throws, Casserly had nine with three at the line, Walker had six with two from the line and junior Ed Ye and Rezaii both had two.
For the Panthers, Stevenson did the majority of the scoring, putting up half of Prospect's points with 23. Stevenson had two threes and three from the line. Hendon had nine points.
In the first round, the Falcons beat Piedmont Hills 60-39. Again it was Nielsen who put up the most points, scoring 25 with 11 from the line and four three pointers. Ghafouri had 11 with a three and two at the line.
Saratoga will now face Leland in the first round of the Los Gatos Wildcat Shootout on Dec. 6 and then head to the Prospect Tournament on Dec. 13.
Prospect finished fourth in the tourney. The Panthers has posted a 52-34 first round win over Live Oak, holding the Acorns to under 10 points in three of the four quarters.
Stevenson led the Panther offense with 22 and three three-pointers.
