Warriors Win National Hoops Honors
The NAIA named Westmont basketball players Iyree Jarrett and Abram Carrasco to the All-American First Team, and John Moore as Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year.
Moore became the first Westmont men’s basketball head coach to earn the honor, having previously won Golden State Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year for the third time earlier this month.
“It’s not just me receiving this honor, it’s coaches Jeff Azain, Rob Goodrow, Landon Boucher and our players,” Moore said. “Those three guys have added so much to my life. What a blessing they’ve been, as have the players.
“This award comes with a lot of satisfaction and a daunting level of humility.”
Moore, who picked up his 550th win as Westmont head coach on Jan. 23, credits former Westmont coaches Chet Kammerer and Randy Pfund for the tremendous influence they’ve had on him. Both Kammerer and Pfund went on to coach and be executives in the NBA.
Moore is the sixth ever Westmont head coach, across all sports, to receive an NAIA Coach of the Year Award.
Jarrett, a sophomore, led the Warriors in both scoring (14.10 points per game) and in assists (5.14 per game). She ranked 13th in the NAIA in assists per game and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.98).
“Iyree had a phenomenal year,” said Kirsten Moore, Westmont women’s basketball head coach. “The deeper we got into this season, and as we got into conference and had the opportunity to win a conference championship, she stepped up her game to an even higher level in terms of her ability to control a game on the offensive end of the floor. Not only was she able to score, but more importantly, she was able to control tempo, control flow and get her teammates shots.
“If you look at the number of points she created offensively, it wasn’t just her scoring, but her assists as well. She was contributing 30 points a game to our offensive production. Most of her assists resulted in a three-point basket.”
In just two seasons, Jarrett ranks seventh in career assists at Westmont with 283. Her 149 assists this season ranks eighth in Westmont’s season record book. She needed just five more to move into fourth place and 32 to tie for the single-season record, numbers she may well have achieved if the NAIA Championship had not been canceled due to COVID-19. Against Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Jarrett tied a school single-game record with 13 assists.
“Iyree’s on-court presence and leadership took a step up this year,” noted Moore. “This year, she demonstrated the maturity to know when to take over games, when to score and when to create for others. She leaks positivity and oozes joy.”
Carrasco, a junior guard, is the fifth Warrior to be selected to the All-American First Team and the first since Preston Branson in 2012-13. The other three players to earn the honor are: Fred DeVaughn (1972-73), Dave Schultz (1983-84) and Brian Gomes (1998-99).
“That is rarified air that he just joined,” John Moore said. “Those four others were superb players. It’s hard to be an NAIA Division I First Team All-American, but Carrasco was the best player in our conference and he would’ve been if not the best, one of the best players at the National Tournament.”
For the season, Carrasco led the Warriors in both points per game (18.9) and assists per contest (4.8), which ranked 19th and 21st in the NAIA respectively. His 585 points were the 14th most in the NAIA and rank 11th in a single season in Westmont program history, despite the season being cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier this month, Carrasco became the second Warrior to ever be named GSAC Player of the Year and the first to do so outright, after helping his team defy preseason predictions and claim the conference regular season crown.
The junior transfer led the conference with 20.8 points per GSAC game and ranked second with 5.1 assists per GSAC contest.