The noise swelled and shuddered, leaping from loud to louder, lurching up the decibel scale. The cacophony erupted before tip and endured past the final buzzer, by which time Westfield students spilled en masse onto the court, their white shirts blending together in the frenzy. Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium houses some Blue Devils, but that venerated basketball hall holds nothing over Thursday night’s packed Blue Devil bastion.
A sell-out crowd at WHS witnessed No. 5 seed Westfield slide past No. 13 Scotch Plains-Fanwood, 59–56, in the quarterfinals of the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament. The Blue Devils advanced to Saturday’s sectional semifinals, where they will host No. 8 Newark East Side, after the Red Raiders conquered No. 1 Ridge.
The animus between Westfield and SPF infused the game with an extra level of rabidity. Not that the game needed it. This was a sectional quarterfinal, the biggest stage of the season. Strip the game of its fanatical atmosphere, and still it yielded gallons of excitement.
Westfield struggled to convert free throws all game, but in the final minute and a half the Blue Devils went 6-of-8 from the line to nudge past the Raiders. The game effectively ended after SPF was whistled for an intentional foul with a second left, handing Westfield two shots and the ball.
“We hit the [free throws] that we needed,” head coach James McKeon said. “It shouldn’t have been this close if we’d hit all of them.”
The game wasn’t always so close. Westfield led by 14 points in the third quarter and by 13 early in the fourth quarter.
But then came the tremors that herald an earthquake, and the floor opened beneath Westfield’s feet. SPF embarked on a 14–0 run to lead, 52–51. Feet stomped on the SPF bleachers, raising a din, sounding for all the world like a stampede.
Then came the play, perhaps overlooked in the moment, that flipped the tide.
SPF had the ball, flowing forward unchecked, looking to extend the 14–0 run. An SPF ball handler stepped into the lane. TJ Halloran slipped behind him and poked the ball away, into the hands of Theo Sica. The run died a quiet death. Sica drew a foul coming down the floor and retook the lead with the first two of those six free throws.
Westfield never trailed again.
“This team’s got the heart of a lion,” McKeon said.
It was the second meeting this season between Westfield and SPF. The first came in early January, a 48–45 Westfield win in Scotch Plains (Thunderous Fourth Quarter Powers Westfield to Comeback Victory Over SPF). But absent from that game was SPF senior Matt Nervi.
Nervi was back on Thursday. Back with a vengeance. He led his team with 14 points and displayed his deep array of shots.
“Matt’s a great player,” Halloran said. “I grew up playing with Matt, so I know everything Matt does. Matt’s one of the best offensive players I’ve played against.”
Westfield slowed Nervi down by sticking on him Tyshawn Pearson, a relentless defender. Pearson and his teammates formed a defense that McKeon called the “X-factor.”
The Blue Devils weren’t too shabby on offense, either. Sica led with 17 points, Halloran followed with 13, Pearson scored 12 and Zach Epp had 11.
But Westfield failed to mine another possible source of points. Shane Sheehan, the 6-foot-8 big man who has become one of Westfield’s most reliable options during a postseason rampage, scored only 4 points against an undersized SPF team. He did, though, gather 10 rebounds.
“He did a lot of things that maybe don’t read in a box score,” McKeon said. He added, “He’s a presence, and they have to bring two people to him, at least, so it gives guys opportunities.”
But for all the on-court maneuvering, the atmosphere provided an indelible backdrop.
Student ticket sales opened between Periods 3 and 4, and a line materialized in a flash. The line dissipated slowly, kids in backpacks shooting glances at the clock as the line trundled forward. The bell came and went. Nobody left the line. Acquiring this ticket was worth missing class.
The gym was stuffed 20 minutes before tip, a rarity for lazy high school crowds that typically wander in late. They crammed in like sardines. The typical dueling chants rained down.
“When we heard it was SPF, we were ecstatic,” Peter Meixner said. “It’s always fun playing them. The environment’s crazy.”
“This is everything you dream for as a kid,” Halloran said. “The stands were crazy.”
McKeon certainly welcomed the general chaos, urging students after the game to do it “all over again” on Saturday. But, while thrilled with his team’s mettle, he noted that it wasn’t a complete performance.
“We could be cleaner,” he said.
That’s something McKeon says often, the coach’s perpetual search for perfection. Thursday night wasn’t perfection, at least not from an execution standpoint.
But the game was perfect.
Written by Michael Liebermann
Live tweeting and additional reporting by Lucas Hubner
