The clock winds down towards halftime. Sophomore Max MacEacheron receives the ball outside of the 3-point arc. He sets his feet. North Brunswick defenders scramble to close out on Westfield’s 3-point specialist. MacEacheron lets it go. Could this be the dagger?
He sinks it.
With a sigh of relief, Westfield enters the locker room at halftime up 70-15.
The Blue Devils’ 83-54 win over the North Brunswick Raiders was never really a contest. The first two minutes of play saw multiple steals and transition layups from Westfield. One from junior Tyshawn Pearson brought the score to 8-0. Then the Blue Devils turned on the jets. They started hitting shots from everywhere. Juniors Zach Epp and Enzo Ferrero both hit 3-pointers, and the team kept getting transition points off of steals. They scored 24 points before North Brunswick got on the scoreboard with under three minutes left in the first. The quarter finished off with a converted and-1 from junior Will Kirby. The Blue Devils led 36-3.
Addressing the first quarter, head coach James McKeon said, “We came out hot. I mean, we stayed hot, really. It was nice; we shared the basketball, made the extra pass, all that good stuff. We talk about that all the time: if we make the extra pass, everybody gets involved. Everybody gets what they want. I think that was super impressive.”
North Brunswick had an extremely hard time getting the ball past half court. Westfield’s suffocating press defense did not allow them to set their offense.
“We had more active hands running to the trap today than we have at times,” said McKeon. “We did what we were supposed to do. I was hoping that was the production that we could get. It exceeded my [hopes], but that’s exactly what we anticipate when we want to trap people: get those kinds of easy baskets.” And that they did. The Blue Devils scored a great amount of their points off of turnovers.
Westfield was incredibly efficient following these turnovers. Ferrero had 11 points in the first quarter alone, with three 3-point shots, all stemming from the Raiders’ mishaps. Collectively, the Blue Devils gathered 12 3-pointers in the first half. “They didn’t really understand that a lot of us can shoot the ball, and they tried to play too much help defense,” Ferrero commented. “Our offense recognized that and we made the open shots.”
More players from Westfield were able to put points on the board in the second half. MacEacheron got involved with a 3-pointer. Junior Farid Habayeb was able to knock down a layup in traffic. Senior captain Shane Sheehan had a pair of threes on consecutive possessions that brought the score to 62-6 with two minutes left before halftime. Sheehan had 15 points on the day, tying Ferrero for the team high. MacEacheron’s shot to end the second quarter brought his total to 14.
Westfield looked confident and in control of the tempo of the game. “We just did a lot of scouting,” Sheehan noted. “They’re the best team that we’re going to play today so we want to treat them that way.” The mindset of this team seems to have shifted recently, allowing them to play more freely and produce dominant outcomes like today’s.
In the second half, Westfield’s starters did not touch the floor. Sophomore Connor Whelan scored a layup. Junior Johnny Sica and sophomore Aidan Wall each knocked down a 3-pointer. The Blue Devils were outscored 13-39 in the second half, but it did not matter. The domination had been solidified in the first half, and there was nothing the Raiders could do about it.
“Guys played hard. Guys played hard. I mean, it’s hard to stay engaged in something like that when it’s going the way it is,” said McKeon. He also noted that they were “a little passive on the offensive end, trying to do too much. But those guys are in a unique position [where they have to] hold the lead that they’d never had to do before.”
Once the final score landed at 83-54, both teams went to the locker room, one victorious and one downtrodden.
“We wanted to come out swinging. We’re trying to make a run for the playoffs and to win all of our regular season games from here on out,” said Sheehan.
Westfield will take on Monroe at 4 p.m. at WHS on Monday, hoping to replicate their domination from this win.
