Just 2 minutes into the 1st quarter, senior captain Enzo Ferrero caught fire. After hitting a big three-pointer, followed by a jump shot the next possession, he finished his scoring frenzy by stealing the ball from a Plainfield player and taking it all the way for a layup. Despite these impressive plays by Ferrero, the Blue Devils were unable to hang on and lost 71-44 to Plainfield. While Westfield eventually lost the game, they were giving Plainfield a run for their money throughout the first half. At the end of the 1st half, the Blue Devils were winning the game 34-32. This was mainly due to the spectacular shooting from Westfield. Junior Max MacEacheron led the game with 4 three-pointers of his own. Ferrero and junior Aidan Wall also had 2 of their own.
Senior captain Ferrero said, “These past few games we haven’t really had too much success shooting the ball. We knew coming into this game we’d have to make some shots to be able to stay in it against an aggressive Plainfield offense, which is what we did in the first half.”
However, the second half was a different story. Despite Westfield’s defensive efforts, they couldn’t stop 6 ’10 260 pound center NaJai Hines. The big fella racked up 32 points and 17 rebounds leading the Cardinals to a dominant second half.
Head coach Jim McKeon said, “We played a little rushed. We weren’t hitting the same shots we were hitting in the first half. I think that they brought a little bit more intensity coming out of halftime than we did. The killer was easy baskets today.”
In order to defend against Plainfield’s fast paced offense, the Blue Devils employed a zone defense for most of the game. Senior Will Kirby said, “We were in a box and one zone. We knew we also had to have someone guarding number five [Micah Gordon] who is a great shooter. Along with this we did our best to keep Hines out of the paint which was tough given his size.”
As a result of Plainfield’s suffocating defense, Westfield was only able to score three points in the 4th quarter. Ferrero said, “The second half was riddled with turnovers where they would be able to execute transition points and get out in front of us. They hit shots and we didn’t. That’s all it came down to.”
With the loss against Plainfield, the Blue Devils are on a three game losing streak. Westfield plays Linden at home at 4 p.m. where they hope to bounce back and get back in the win column.
