The Blue Devils drove down the court with 5 minutes remaining in the game, hoping to stagnate Plainfield’s growing lead. Westfield, plagued by turnovers, could not gain any penetration, tossing the ball to a Plainfield defender and giving up a possession that could have helped swing the game’s momentum. The Cardinals then go on the offensive, passing the ball to the corner to a Plainfield guard’s outstretched arms, waiting to shoot. He goes up to shoot right away and hits it, extending Plainfield’s lead to 15, icing the game.
Plainfield never looked back, finishing the game strong and defeating the Blue Devils, 60-41. Sophomore Jake Russell led the Blue Devils in scoring with 11 points, and Shane Sheehan added another 8, but it was not enough to secure the victory. Westfield has dropped three of their last four games, sinking to a 3-6 record on the season.
Though the Blue Devils lost by 19 points, there was a two possession difference in score for the majority of the first three quarters. By the end of the third, Westfield was only trailing Plainfield by seven after a three-pointer from sophomore Max MacEacheron.
“We can practice it, but our fourth quarters have been really bad, to put it nicely,” said head coach James McKeon. This loss came after a heartbreaking defeat to rival Scotch Plains-Fanwood, where the Blue Devils scored only six points in the final eight minutes of play.
One obvious cause of the Blue Devil’s late-game troubles has been turnovers. Westfield did not seem to be on the same page the entire game, passing to empty areas of the court and committing an excessive amount of offensive fouls. In moments where they needed points the most, they came up empty, making costly mistakes.
In the second quarter, the Blue Devils only scored three points, coming off of a layup from Will Kirby and a free throw from Tyshawn Pearson. Their first-half struggles remained after halftime, allowing the Cardinals to feed off of the disarray. “In the first half, we just had a lot of unforced turnovers that were between our team. It just led into the second half. We didn’t come out with energy. They weren’t pressing too much, we just had some bad mental errors,” said junior captain Zach Epp.
“We throw the ball away more times than we actually score at this point. We don’t value it. The biggest problem for us is taking care of the ball, but it has been getting worse as we’ve gone forward,” said McKeon. McKeon’s words were no exaggeration, as it seemed that every other Westfield drive down the court was killed by an errant pass out of bounds or into the lap of a defender, giving Plainfield easy fastbreak points.
Senior captain Sheehan touched on this, saying, “We ourselves lost the game. We kind of gave it to them, and I feel like our main thing is just unforced turnovers. We had a ton, and we gotta take care of the ball.”
However, the Blue Devils’ season has just begun, giving them many chances to clean up their play before the playoff games that really matter. Westfield knows something has to change, and they will keep pushing for success, no matter what obstacles they might face along the way.
“One of two things is going to happen, they’re going to get tighter or they’re gonna quit. But we won’t allow them to quit,” urged McKeon.
Westfield will push through and look to get themselves back in the win column this Tuesday against Pioneer Academy at home.
