“We had nothing to lose going into this game. We know who St. John Vianney is. We know they are a great team. But we’re a great team. And we were tough and we are not going to bow down to anybody,” Westfield head coach Liz McKeon said with a smile on her face after Westfield’s 77–36 loss to St. John Vianney.
The Lancers, the No. 1 team in the state and the No. 9 team in the country, pounded the Blue Devils. With the loss, Westfield dropped to 3-3.
The first quarter started off the way many expected. Westfield knew it would be in for a challenge. The Lancers started the game on a 10–0 run that would have caused many teams to simply give up and wave the white flag. But the Blue Devils never gave up.
Senior co-captain and guard Annie Ryan played her heart out on both ends of the court, as she put an end to the 10–0 run with a steal and a beautiful pass to senior co-captain Sutton Factor. One minute later, Ryan made another steal. This time she finished it herself, cutting the Lancer lead to just 6 points. As the clock counted down in the first quarter, fans could get a sense that they were in for a treat. This was because in the final minute, four 3-pointers were made, two by each team (Ryan and Sara Rooney for Westfield), and the final Lancer 3-pointer was a buzzer-beater. The score after one quarter was 18–12, with Westfield fans actively cheering the girls on.
On the early offensive success, Ryan said, “I was feeling pretty confident and I think the ball movement from our offense was really good and the way we moved the ball around allowed me and others to get a lot of open shots.”
The second quarter, to the surprise of everyone in the building, started off with a bang for Westfield. Ryan picked up where she left off in the first quarter, immediately drilling a three. The score was now 20–15, and with a huge stop and a fantastic turnaround jumper from senior co-captain Paige Gorczyca, the score was 20–17. The entire arena was in utter disbelief that the No. 9 team in the country was struggling to pull away from the Blue Devils.
This showed high school basketball watchers that Westfield is not a team to play around with.
The Lancers began to gain momentum, taking a 9-point lead and forcing the Blue Devils to call a timeout with 4:19 remaining in the second quarter.
After the timeout, St. John Vianney went on an 18–4 run to close out the half. Zoe Brooks, NC State commit and ninth-ranked player in the country, was the guiding force for the Lancers during this run, as she scored 7 points in a row. Brooks would finish the game with 32 points, 11 steals and 5 assists, proving to everyone watching that her athleticism and skill would be too much for the Westfield defense.
The third quarter began, and the Lancers took the momentum created from the first half and instilled it into the third quarter. Brooks took over, hitting nearly every shot she attempted, as the Lancers won the quarter, 20–3, and took a commanding 66–26 lead.
With every reason to quit and give in, the Blue Devils avoided the temptation to wave the white flag, and fought hard in the fourth quarter. The girls brought the same high intensity throughout the entire game, and in the fourth quarter were able to keep it close, only losing 11–10 in the quarter.
While the final score of the game was a seemingly lopsided 77-36, the score was not indicative of the girls’ heart and effort. The girls showed that they are a legit team. “We learned today that we can compete at any kind of level no matter who we are up against,” said Ryan.
This is exactly what the Blue Devils did, especially as they held Brooks to just 3 points in the first quarter. Ultimately, while winning is everything in sports, the season is still very young, and the fight and grit that the girls displayed in the game proved that no matter who is on the other side of the court, the Blue Devils are going to give everything they have. When you play the best teams, you are able to learn more about yourself, and that is exactly what Westfield did.
The Blue Devils will take on 2-4 Summit in their next game, on Jan. 5. In their last five meetings, the Blue Devils have topped the Hilltoppers four times. They will look to use the lessons learned from this game and apply them against Summit.
