After a steal from senior forward Jack Seiders, The Chaps got down the floor in transition. Seiders then lost the ball and raced back to the basket to get a chasedown block and prevent what would’ve been two points for University.

“I knew I had to get it,” Seiders said. “This game was really close…I had to go [get the] chase-down block.”

On Tuesday, Westlake (1-2) defeated University (0-1) 42-35 at Al Bennett Court in an non-district matchup. The Chaps shook off their first 0-2 start since 2010 to grab their first win of the season. Seiders led the charge offensively with a 16 points and 12 rebounds en route to a double-double.

Seiders and the Chaps won the tip but gave it away to University and went down by two to start the game. Senior guard Hunter Davis stepped up and drilled his first three of the game to give Westlake an early lead. After trading buckets, University hit a mid range jumper just before the buzzer to tie the game at eight going into the second.

Westlake took the lead on another Davis three and added on four more points inside for Seiders soon after.

“[The team] created everything,” Seiders said. “Every pass, every rebound, and we needed some points, so I congratulate my team for that.”

Sophomore guard Powell Frickenschmidt dinked one off the backboard and got it to fall as the Chaps went into half with a 17-13 lead.

Early in the second half, with University coming down the court, Seiders took a charge and handed the ball right to the Chaps. Senior guard Luke Butler got his only points of the night with two more point paints for the Chaps. Davis drained a mid-range adding to that total.

With time winding down in the third period, senior guard Jake Campbell rebounded the ball and swished a mid-range as he fell to the hardwood ending the third with the Chaps leading 31-29.

University went into the fourth trailing and hit a three to put them ahead for the first time since the opening minutes of the game. The Chaps didn’t give up as Frickensmidt stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for the layup to take back the lead. Shortly after, Davis hit his third and final three of the night, finishing the game with 11 points and three threes.

University hit another three to pull within a point before Seiders layed it in, then got to the line on the next possession.  Seiders calmly knocked them both down, and then took his second charge of the night. His strong fourth quarter was enough to close out the Trojans 42-35.

The Chaps rode their defense all night, holding their opponent to only 35 points, a season low. They were able to do so thanks to 35 rebounds and six steals

“We took a couple of hard losses [last year], so we knew we had to lock in on defense this year.” Seiders said. “So the past couple of days, we’ve been working on that. I think it really showed out today.”’

Westlake will next play at Johnson (0-1) in another non-district game on Friday. The Jaguars are coming off of a 65-38 loss to Westwood.

“I was really proud that they were able to get better [than] yesterday,” varsity head coach Robert Lucero said. “Let those two [past] games go and move on to the next one.”