From the moment the Blue Devils stepped foot onto the court, positive energy filled the WHS gym as cheers from students and families echoed throughout. Coming off a tough loss to Roselle Catholic in the final seconds of the game, the team was eager to play even harder against Elizabeth.
Westfield was without their lead scorer and senior tri-captain, Max MacEacheron, who was serving the first of his two-game suspension. With this, the Blue Devils knew they had to step up offensively in order to create scoring opportunities and put themselves in contention against the Minutemen.
Head coach James McKeon commented on MacEacheron’s absence, saying, “[We can’t] replace him with one guy. He is arguably one of the best shooters we ever had and one of the best scorers on the team now. I think a large part [of today] is to look at it as a collective group, and we did it.”
Elizabeth immediately got off to a hot start, going on an eight-point run just four minutes into the game. Westfield struggled to convert possessions into scoring opportunities during the first half. McKeon said, “We gave up some open jump shots. They hit the corner threes, and we missed a couple.”
Despite these missed opportunities, the Blue Devils continued to fight and prevented the Minutemen from pulling away. In the final three minutes of the first half, Westfield went on a 10-3 run and cut Elizabeth’s 15-point lead to make the score 36-28 to end the first half.
While Westfield did not lose the grit and perseverance in the second half, Elizabeth maintained their strength and dominance, ultimately defeating the Blue Devils 62-49. Sophomore Talan Lewis said, “I feel like we did well as a team, just not on the defensive end. We did well with our spacing as well.”
Senior tri-captain Jake Russell made his return after suffering from an injury earlier in the season. Knowing the team was down a key player, Russell stepped up and was Westfield’s leading scorer of the night with 12 points. However, this was not enough to keep up with Elizabeth junior Jayden Johnson, who scored 25 points for the Minutemen.
While the result was not what Westfield had hoped for, they persisted throughout the game and kept the same fight they had shown in past games. Russell said, “Our goal was to play with intensity. We just came off a good game versus RC, so we knew we could play with anybody in the state. We came out here with nothing to lose, and we played pretty well again.”
The team will travel to Hunterdon Central on Jan. 30 at 5:30 p.m. Now 4-14, the Blue Devils are looking to get another win to improve their chances of making the state tournament. McKeon commented, “I think we’re building right now in the right direction. I know it might not seem that way, but we’ve had four really good days in a row, so we’re just gonna roll off that.”
