SAN DIEGO—Point Loma set a Pacific West Conference tournament record with 20 three-pointers to race past Westmont in the conference championship on Saturday afternoon in Golden Gymnasium, 94-69.
The Sea Lions, the No. 1 seed, earns the PacWest’s automatic berth into next week’s NCAA tournament. The official seeding and entire tournament field will be announced on Sunday night.
Point Loma not only made 20 treys, they also didn’t miss many. They ended the afternoon 20-of-32 from behind the arch, abolishing the previous record of 15 (held by three teams).
"We really had some good looks today, we didn't take any bad shots," said Point Loma head coach
Justin Downer. "Everything was very clean. We had good communication all game. We just wanted it really bad."
And they got started right away. The home team drained five of their first seven in the first six minutes of play. Their first six baskets were all three balls, giving them a 18-10 lead. They would continue to rain home long bombs and posted a 30-12 lead with nine minutes still remaining in the half.
Before the 20 minutes were over, the regular season champs and defending tournament winners had drained 11 of 18 three-pointers to guide them to a 49-21 halftime margin.
PLNU would hit 9 of 14 treys in the second half. They led by as many as 33 points (68-35) after a
Jake Lifgren bomb with 12:28 remaining. The final team stat line showed 62 percent marksmanship from behind the stripe and 61 percent overall from the field.
Caden Harris, the tournament Most Valuable Player, finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Lifgren had 18, all on three-pointers (6-for-6) and
James Nobles had 17, 14 of them in the second half.
Andrew Nagy had 16 and
Jaden Matingou had eight assists while running the offense.
Jarrett Bryant led Westmont with 15 points,
Aidan Mandel had 14,
Braedon Bigott added 11 and
Trey Thompson finished with 10.
Point Loma improved to 25-5 on the season while Westmont is now 18-12. The Warriors were No. 9 in this week’s NCAA West Region poll and will now need to wait to find out if they are in the tournament field or not via the Sunday Selection show.
"It felt really good to cut down the nets in our own gym," Downer added. "Every guy gets a piece because it takes all of us to get here."
2026 PacWest All-Tournament Team
MVP—Caden Harris, Point Loma
Jake Lifgren, Point Loma
Jaden Matingou, Point Loma
James Nobles, Point Loma
Jarrett Bryant, Westmont
Aidan Mandel, Westmont