On Thursday night, the Blue Devils made the short drive to compete with their conference rivals, the New Providence Pioneers. Trailing by one point at the end of the third quarter, Westfield remained calm and focused heading into the fourth. Despite an incredible team performance, they were outscored in the final minutes, falling short with a final score of 41-33, bringing their record to 15-6.
From tipoff, the energy in the NPHS gym was non-stop for the Blue Devils. There was cheering on and off the court from both players and parents, along with constant communication and reassurance between players on the court.
“We knew that the entire game was going to be difficult, we knew we had to play until the end and I think we did an amazing job feeding off each other’s energy,” said senior tri-captain Darby Hubner. “We played off of each other, celebrating plays no matter how small.”
The Blue Devils went into halftime confident, leading with a three from junior Mairin Fowler in the last second of the first half.
Westfield has had an intense schedule this season with a significant number of majorly competitive games. “These kids have given 150 percent, playing with one of the toughest schedules in the state,” said head coach Liz McKeon. “We’ll take a few days off, regroup, reset and get ready for the county tournament next week.”
The fourth quarter was defined by timeouts and key plays. In the last four minutes of the fourth quarter, there were four timeouts.
“In any close game, our energy always stays high. We came into this knowing we had nothing to lose and we left it all out there,” said sophomore Kate Cymbor. “The entire game we moved the ball well and really kept ourselves in this one.”
Many Westfield players found themselves tallying points throughout the evening, with Hubner and Fowler combining for 16, and senior tri-captain Megan Logan contributing across the board. Logan was Westfield’s leading scorer with 12 points and ended with stats in every category, including a game-high 4 blocks and 5 steals.
Although Westfield has narrowly lost their last two games, falling to Union Catholic by two on Tuesday, they are entering the Union County Tournament as the No. 2 seed.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our effort and defensive intensity tonight,” said McKeon. “This is going to give us confidence going into the tournament. A loss always sucks, but we know we can compete with anyone in our county.”
The Blue Devils will have home court advantage on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the first round of the Union County Tournament.
