Randolph and Westfield slogged through 31 methodical minutes, minutes replete with grinding defense and straining offense. Then the teams arrived at the 32nd and final minute. And there they yielded control to the vagaries of basketball.
The ref could have called a foul. The ball could have spun the other way. The possession arrow could have pointed the opposite direction.
In the end, after a mishmash of a final few seconds, Randolph repelled Westfield’s spirited attempts at a tying bucket and walked out with a 40–38 win. The Rams (15-1, 6-0 NJAC National) dug past the Blue Devils (12-5, 9-2 UCC Watchung) in a game hallmarked by relentless defense and missed shots.
“Randolph’s a very good defensive team,” said Westfield head coach Liz McKeon, who later said, with a touch of pride, that “we’re great defensively.”
“Our shots just weren’t falling today,” she added.
Westfield, trailing 40–38 with 30 seconds to play, missed three potentially game-tying shots in the last 15 seconds.
After the first, a Randolph player traveled securing the rebound, and Westfield regained possession with 10.3 seconds. A timeout ensued, and Westfield orchestrated a frantic possession that culminated in an off-balance look. The shot missed, and as the ball fell to the floor the clock wound inexorably toward zero.
A Randolph rebounder grabbed the ball. Three Westfield players swarmed her. Whistle. Jump ball with 0.9 seconds left.
Every eye in the gym whipped to the scorer’s table, seeking out the possession arrow, a collection of red pixels suddenly turned almighty. It pointed in Westfield’s direction. One more chance.
Another timeout. Players walking back out to the floor. Sutton Factor on the baseline, slapping the ball once. Movement. A pass to Annie Ryan. Ryan shooting on the run, then tumbling to the ground.
The ball rolled off the rim, dropped to the floor. The buzzer sounded.
“It could have been a foul,” McKeon said. “But, I tell the girls, you can’t put it in the official’s hands. We got the plays off that we wanted to get off.”
It was a game of probing and retreating, a game of arduous offensive possessions. Westfield manufactured its share of open looks. The Blue Devils just couldn’t hit them.
A reporter wandered over to talk to McKeon postgame, and she greeted him with seven words: “You can’t win if you don’t score.”
Ryan and Paige Gorczyca did most of Westfield’s scoring, Ryan with 15 points and Gorczyca with 12. Factor chipped in with 6 points.
Randolph handed the scoring duties to its star twins, Sydney and Madison Jenisch, who scored 31 of the Rams’ 40 points. McKeon applauded the combined efforts of Factor and Gorczyca in slowing down the pair, but Factor was more critical of the performance.
“Shots weren’t falling. Defense was not our best,” she said. “It just wasn’t our best showing today, and that caught up to us in the third quarter when we went down.” She also noted that, when Westfield eventually hobbled the twins, the Randolph supporting cast shouldered the burden.
Randolph’s spacious gym (located on a sprawling campus littered with gleaming athletic facilities) magnified the howling shouts that coaches and parents and fans lobbed at the refs. One parent was removed from the gym for yelling at the refs.
“Horrible officiating throughout,” McKeon said, “but, again, you can’t put it in their hands.”
Westfield led at halftime, 20–19, after Ryan shoveled in an underhanded circus shot through contact with under a minute to play. But Randolph used a big third quarter to claim a 32–28 lead. Westfield trailed by as many as 7 points in the fourth quarter, but Ryan tied the game at 38–38 with a free throw in the final minute. Randolph’s Allyson Kuridiza scored the game-winning layup with 34 seconds left.
The loss was Westfield’s second in its last four games. It also was a missed opportunity to accrue valuable Power Points two weeks before the Feb. 11 cutoff, despite McKeon insisting she pays little mind to Power Points. Westfield currently sits seventh in North 2, Group 4, with regular-season games still to play against Chatham (Tuesday home at 6 p.m.), Scotch Plains-Fanwood (Thursday away at 7 p.m.) and Gill St. Bernard’s (Feb. 4 home at 2 p.m.).
The Union County Tournament begins on Feb. 6, though Westfield likely will receive a bye. The Blue Devils have some breaches to mend before tournament time.
But the reigning Group 4 champions have the firepower. They have the leadership.
Now they just need the wins.
Article by Michael Liebermann
Live Tweeting by Alyssa Martinez
