Rams rally to beat Carlmont

Westmoor senior Sean Orr turned in an explosive second-half performance. The 6-4 forward notched his usual double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds, but took just four points into the halftime locker room. He turned up the heat though, scoring 21 points in the second half, leading Westmoor on a 27-16 third-quarter run to overtake the Scots.

“I guess we were just sleeping,” Orr said of Westmoor’s tepid first-half performance. “We didn’t want to drive I guess. We were all scared of the contact. And we just came back in (the second half) ready to fight.”

Carlmont (7-5) was able to hold Westmoor at bay for much of the third quarter, but the Rams got a big splash from the bench when senior Lukas Nodar, with 2:30 remaining in the period, drilled a 3-point bull’s-eye to cut the lead to 48-47.

“He comes in, he’s shooting it,” Orr said. “I tell him to shoot it every day. That’s what I tell everyone, to shoot it with confidence. That’s all we need.”

Then Orr took over, giving the Rams a 54-52 lead with a strong man’s dribble-drive with just over a minute in the quarter. He went on to rack up 14 points in the quarter, then carried that over to the first points of the fourth quarter to keep Westmoor in control.

The Scots went into the fourth quarter at a disadvantage with 6-5 center Daniel Zorb sitting due to foul trouble. Carlmont is already down a power forward in senior Jacob Lloyd, who hasn’t played this season since turning an ankle in the season-opening alumni game.

Zorb tended to the post sturdily when he was on the floor, notching a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Without him though, the Rams sold out with the full-court press and gave Carlmont fits.

“We have been but I think we let them control the tempo,” Carlmont head coach Patrick Smith said. “They were able to control tempo a little more than we would have liked.”

The Scots showed a lot of character though, willing to slug it out with Westmoor down the stretch. Lajuan Nelson was a force to be reckoned with, totaling a team-high 15 points. But it was the connection between guards Sho Takashi and Lucas Billot that gave the Scots a glimmer of hope in the closing minutes.

Trailing 64-61, Takashi produced a big steal — a rarity seeing as Westmoor committed just six turnovers throughout — then pushed the tempo in transition and kicked it out to Billot who popped a 3-pointer to tie it at 64-64 with 3:10 remaining in regulation.

But Westmoor closed on a seven-point run, getting more show from Nodar. It was senior forward Alex Johansson driving to the hoop to give the Rams the lead at 66-64.

Then on the other end, Nodar grabbed board on an ill-advised Carlmont chuck, and with the Rams setting up a middle lane in the half-court set, the ball found its way back to Nodar, who kicked a bounce pass with Orr gliding through the paint for a lay-in to all but seal the win.

“That was something we all work on every day,” Orr said. “We got spacing and he got me the ball.”

Running and gunning is going to be a staple of Westmoor’s game this season, according to Westmoor head coach Herb Yaptinchay. Much of that has to do with the team’s height, or lack thereof.

“[Orr] is our biggest guy at 6-4,” Yaptinchay said. “After that, our biggest guy is 6 foot. So the only way we can really survive is we’ve got to get the tempo up.”

Orr was hardly a one-man show though. The senior is at his best when he’s involving his teammates in the flow of the offense, and that’s just the way he likes it.

“I think that’s a little bit of our problem is everything is on [Orr],” Yaptinchay said. “We’ve got guys that are capable of playing. … We need to get them to step up and put some points up.”

Those points showed up in the box score with three Rams scoring in double-digits. In addition to Orr’s game-high 25, Johansson added 17 points and sophomore Marquez Costiniano scored 10.