The fourth quarter was underway. Down 11 coming into the final period of the game, Westfield needed to mount a comeback. The home stands, packed with current students and Blue Devil alumni back from college on winter break, were lively with energy. Only a minute passed without a score. Linden took possession and set up an offense. A few passes and an open shot from behind the arc. Bang. The Tigers now led, 52-38. Though there was a quarter to go, Westfield would not come close again.
“They executed better than us down the road. And that’s two games in a row,” said head coach James McKeon. “If we want to talk about all we want to be… [we] can’t let up back-to-back 20-plus point quarters in the second half. That’s embarrassing. That’s not putting everything on the line.” Coming into the second half tied at 26-26, Westfield allowed Linden to pull ahead and ultimately win, 70-54.
Linden came out in the first quarter quickly with an early layup to take a 2-0 lead. Able to get many shots up in response, Westfield took a 10-2 lead with captains Shane Sheehan and Zach Epp making a 3-pointer and layup each. The Tigers got started with a few scores of their own, but Sheehan and Epp were able to maintain the lead at 15-9. A massive block by Sheehan in the paint with one minute left in the first quarter gave the Blue Devils the momentum to end the quarter up, 17-10. Epp had eight points and Sheehan had nine, combining for all of the team’s first-quarter points.
According to Epp, he was the key to the team’s strong start. “My teammates just found me the ball, [I was] shooting the ball in rhythm… not doing too much, and letting the game come to me.”
Westfield gave up the lead in the first three minutes of the second quarter after a Linden 3-pointer and a Sheehan block that was called goaltending. Sheehan responded with a layup of his own, and Epp made three baskets to end the quarter 26-26. They finished the first half with 25 combined points. Sophomore Jake Russel finished off the scoring with his single free throw.
Speaking on his team’s first half success, McKeon said, “They did what they were supposed to… And then they didn’t.” The second half would not yield the same results.
“They came out in the second half with less of a bench than us [and] more fired up than us. We knew the first three minutes were important, and they took it to ten points in a heartbeat,” said McKeon.
Layups from Sheehan and junior Enzo Ferrero were met with four Linden scores to put the Tigers up, 40-30. Sheehan agreed with his coach: “It’s an energy thing.” Linden just seemed to have more of it.
“That’s why they’re nine in the state,” said McKeon. “It’s nothing new. We’ve seen them all the time. We’re going to see them again hopefully three more times, but not if we keep playing second halves like we’ve been playing second halves.”
Junior captain Tyshawn Pearson echoed Mckeon, saying, “The second half starts you know you can never quit. You have to play strong and have each other’s backs.”
The rest of the third quarter saw neck-and-neck scoring between each team. Ferrero and Pearson combined for ten points in the quarter, but the Tigers stayed ahead and ended the period up, 49-38.
The fourth quarter was no better than the third. “Our guys play hard… We’re just not executing in crunch time and that has to be something that they notice now,” said McKeon. “We can take care of it early in the season but the second halves have been killing us. Absolutely killing us… The fourth quarters have been absolutely embarrassing.”
The Tigers extended their lead to 59-38 in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, and despite many highlight layups from Pearson, Linden comfortably prevailed.
Epp led the team with 20 points, a great comeback after missing most of the last game against Elizabeth because of foul trouble. As for his high-scoring performance, McKeon said, “That’s exactly what he should do. Plain and simple. That’s what his expectations are, and that’s what our expectations are.”
Though Epp stepped up against Linden, along with Sheehan who had 15 points, McKeon is looking for all of his players to do so: “We have not played a full game with our players all involved. Some guys didn’t show up tonight, and some guys didn’t show up against Elizabeth… We need continuous guys to show up. We can’t have spurts where some guys are showing up and some guys aren’t.”
“It starts in practice… You’ve got to come out in the games and be focused on the day ahead. You’ve got to be prepared and that starts in practice,” said Sheehan.
Westfield will look to earn their first win of the season at 6:00 p.m. against Union Catholic on Thursday at Union Catholic.
