SAN DIEGO—No. 2 seed Westmont built a seven-point halftime lead and then kept a gritty Concordia squad just out of reach for a 82-73 Pacific West Conference men’s basketball semifinal win on Friday afternoon at Golden Gymnasium.

The Warriors, now 18-11 on the season, advance to the PacWest championship game on Saturday at 2 pm, against the winner of our next semifinal between Hawaii Pacific and Point Loma.

Concordia, the No. 6 seed, completes a successful season at 16-14.

The two squads, who split their regular seasons contests against each other, traded baskets in the first half. They were tied at 24-24 before the Warriors went on a 7-0 run to post the largest lead of the game at the half, 31-24.

The Warriors did most of their damage in the first 20 minutes via Trey Thompson, who had 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, using a variety of twisting drives to the basket.

Concordia made a run early after the break, cutting Westmont’s margin to 43-41 after a Jackson Tucker three-pointer. The Golden Eagles would battle basket for basket from there, taking a lead at 58-57, but the Warriors answered with a 13-2 run to pull away for the a 82-73 final score.

Jarrett Bryant led the Warriors with 21 points and six rebounds. Thompson finished with 17 and Braedon Bigott had 14, hitting all eight of his free throw attempts, most of those in the final minutes of the game. In fact, the Warriors converted 15 of 17 free shots in the game.

Concordia was paced by Kaden Minter’s 20 points on 6-of-13 from three-point range. MaCarhy Morris had 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Marcellus Edwards added 14 points.

“The conference tournament is really the start of the NCAA tournament,” said Westmont head coach Justin Leslie. “This is what we prepared for starting last Fall so that we would be playoff ready when March came around.”