The scoreboard flashed 19–3 in favor of Westfield as Sutton Factor brought up the ball in the remaining minutes of the first quarter. Coming off a screen, Annie Ryan ran underneath the basket to the left corner. Sara Rooney, now with the ball in her hands at the left wing, hit Ryan in stride. Ryan received the pass, set her feet and shoulders toward the basket, and launched the three-pointer. Nothing but net. One-thousand points. The game came to a temporary pause as her teammates mobbed her at midcourt.
“It’s crazy. It feels amazing,” Ryan said. “But most importantly we won the state game and that’s what was on my mind the whole time.”
With the basket, Ryan became the sixth female Blue Devil to crack 1,000 points. Ryan ended the game with 14 points and needed 10 points for the achievement. She only needed six minutes to tally those 10 points.
Head coach Liz McKeon had endless praise for Ryan postgame. “She’s put in a ton of work, I couldn’t be happier for her,” McKeon said. “Annie never worried about her scoring or how many points she had. She’s always a team-first player and I think that’s what helped her offensive onslaught.”
No. 4 seeded Westfield (19-6, 10-2 UCC Watchung) eased its way past No. 13 seeded Phillipsburg (14-10, 6-4 Skyland Delaware), 61–29, in the opening round of the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament. The Blue Devils will take on No. 5 seeded Edison on Thursday in the quarterfinal round.
Phillipsburg proved to be no match for Westfield as the Blue Devils were in complete control of the game within the first few minutes of the first quarter. Westfield scored the game’s first 11 points and Phillipsburg finally took the lid off of the basket with 3 minutes to go in the quarter.
McKeon credited the defense for the Blue Devils’ early success on offense: “Our defense has been hungry since Sunday. They were ready to bounce back and I’m very proud of the girls for moving on.”
The gut-wrenching loss on Sunday came to Westfield’s biggest foe, New Providence. After splitting the regular-season series, New Providence was able to get the last laugh and defeat Westfield in the Union County Tournament championship for the second year in a row.
Following a hard loss like that, most teams would come out flat in their next game. However, above-average programs like Westfield do not. The Blue Devils were dominant in the paint throughout the game as Catie Carayannopoulos collected her fourth double-double of the season. The sophomore center tallied 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Stat-stuffing performances also came from seniors Paige Gorczyca and Sutton Factor. Gorczyca finished with a game-high 15 points, and Factor contributed with an all-around performance of 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
In a game like this, Westfield looked nearly flawless on both ends of the floor. However, the Blue Devils are not opposed to tweaking minor things offensively.
Gorczyca said that Westfield would like to improve upon “working in and out of the post. More getting the ball in the high-post and looking weak [side].”
Like player, like coach, McKeon agrees: “We gotta work on what we need to do and not worry about the scoreboard. We’ll take the win, but we gotta get ready and continue to get better because it’s win or go home.”
Win or go home. The motto the Blue Devils will be following throughout the remainder of the state playoffs. Last year, Westfield did not “go home” as it captured the Group 4 championship. The Blue Devils will hopefully remain winning and repeat last year’s postseason success.
