On Feb. 12, the Blue Devils were set to square off with Linden as they started their Union County Tournament run. The team would go on to cruise past Linden 52-20 to advance in the tournament.
Westfield came out looking strong on the defensive side of the ball as they applied heavy pressure on the Linden ball handlers. Senior co-captain Catie Carayannopoulos said, “We made sure to talk on defense and rotate whenever someone moved to be in help.”
Head coach Liz McKeon added, “Being in help defense, jumping the passes, just doing our normal tough half-court defense.”
Westfield’s defensive efforts held Linden to only two points in the first quarter. The team’s offense was also working to complement the team’s defense. After checking in early, junior Darby Hubner caught her rhythm from the mid-range area to help boost Westfield’s lead.
“I’d say that my mid-range shot is the shot that I’m most confident in,” Hubner said. “I feel like it fits in well with our team’s offense.”
The scoring from Hubner and senior co-captain Laura Oliveira proved to be a key factor in building a lead. McKeon said, “It’s great, it just shows how deep our team is, people focus on who starts games, but we’re ten deep so we’re very lucky with that.”
Despite tough defense from Linden, Westfield was able to keep their offensive composure. Hubner said, “Linden plays really tough defense so we knew to just be confident and stay patient.”
Despite a strong first half, McKeon would not allow her team to become satisfied with their 29-8 halftime lead. “We were not complacent,” McKeon said. “We need to share the ball and just work better on passing and stop getting pushed back by their defense.”
Westfield came out in the second half looking to improve upon their halftime lead. McKeon said, “It started with strong defense to propel our offense.”
Taking that message into the second half the team would go on to win the game 52-20 to advance to the UCT quarterfinals.
Looking ahead to the rest of the tournament, McKeon is having her team continue to work on what they have worked on all season. “We’ve been working on communication on defense and offense all year,” McKeon said.
McKeon’s players shared her point of view on what was most important. “I’d say our chemistry. We’ve had a few injuries lately, but we need to make sure we’re staying connected and united,” said Carayannopoulos.
The team will be back in action on Feb. 15 as against Scotch Plains-Fanwood for the UCT quarterfinals.
