The fourth quarter began with a Theo Sica bucket. Nothing special. One step past his defender and a nonchalant floater. Like a kid in the driveway.
An unremarkable play, by most accounts. But one that signified, even in the fourth quarter’s infancy, that something had changed. Westfield had been born anew.
This new Westfield, which entered the fourth quarter trailing by 9 points and floundering in a roaring wave of Scotch Plains-Fanwood momentum, outscored SPF by 14 points in the fourth quarter to come back and win, 48–45.
The Sica bucket shaved the Westfield deficit to 7 points. Five minutes later, Sica drilled a three from the wing, and suddenly Westfield led. Suddenly the momentum was hurtling in the other direction. Suddenly the once-lifeless Westfield student section was bouncing.
The Blue Devils grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck in the fourth quarter. Tension permeated SPF’s cramped gym. The dueling student sections erupted to rival Mount Vesuvius.
In the end, it was Westfield’s night. The Blue Devils (6-4, 2-4 UCC Watchung) scored tough buckets, displayed henceforth unseen composure, and smothered the Raiders (4-4, 3-2 UCC Mountain).
Oh, and there was the energy. So much energy. A flood of energy. Much of it emanating from Noah Fischer.
With a few minutes to play and Westfield trailing by 2 points, the ball bounced toward the corner off a Westfield player. SPF appeared poised to regain possession. The play, in the eyes of everybody in the gym, was over.
Just not in Fischer’s eyes.
Fischer dove toward the ball with a bravery bordering on recklessness. The result, as Westfield fans screamed their appreciation, was that Westfield maintained possession. On the next play, Sica, who scored 26 points in total, drilled that three from the wing to give Westfield a lead it would never relinquish.
“Fischer has great energy,” head coach James McKeon said. “He owns Scotch Plains, from what I understand. His day was today.”
Fischer described his defensive mentality as “just being a menace, being annoying on defense. I just gotta do my role.”
Other Westfield players displayed poise in tough moments, too. The unruly SPF student section, always the bearer of questionable chants, hollered Sica’s mother’s name while he shot free throws. Didn’t matter. He coldly knocked them down.
“I thought it was a little weird with them chanting my mom’s name,” Sica said. “I wouldn’t say it pissed me off, but it was a little personal. So I hit some big shots and sent them home unhappy.”
TJ Halloran and Tyshawn Pearson also shone for Westfield. Halloran scored 9 points—including a silky pull-up jumper in the fourth quarter that galvanized the Blue Devil crowd—gathered 10 rebounds and had 6 assists. Pearson scored 7 points and played sticky defense.
The dominant fourth quarter derived in part from impregnable defense.
“Defense is a skill, but it doesn’t really take skill,” McKeon said. “It takes want. A lot of people can dribble the ball and shoot the ball. But if you want to play defense, you gotta do it. We take pride in that, we talk about it every day.”
The defense finally coalesced in the final quarter, but not before the Raiders inflicted a heavy toll in the game’s opening three quarters. The SPF 3-point storm battered Westfield’s porous walls.
The Raiders’ strategy appeared simple. Shoot 3-pointers and hope they go in. And when that fails, shoot more 3-pointers.
For a while, it worked. Kyle Hunter, who Sica referred to as “some kid who’s not on the scouting report,” drilled three from the outside in the third quarter. His third 3-pointer, with seconds remaining in the quarter, generated an explosion from the SPF student section loud enough to puncture eardrums.
Third-quarter woes have obstructed Westfield all season. “Our third quarter’s been our demise,” McKeon said.
McKeon criticized his team’s body language during the first three quarters. He got fired up because of it.
“It’s not over,” he said. “It’s never over. And I don’t want those guys to ever feel like it is. So I’m happy [with] the way they responded.”
A scratchy end to the first half augured Westfield’s third-quarter breakdown. SPF, powered by a 7-0 run, found itself trailing only 22–19 entering halftime. Fischer partially halted the Raider momentum with a layup in traffic to end the half, but the Blue Devils’ struggles on the glass and in the post harmed them.
Westfield did have its moments, though. Mason Gibbs scored a strong bucket in the paint, Halloran hit a 3-point bomb (and waved gloatingly at the SPF student section), and Sica ignited with a trio of dazzling shots.
Westfield, which scored its first 6 points at the rim, focused on dominating the paint.
“We want to attack everybody,” McKeon said. “I think that physicality is part of the game.”
Attack, as it happens, was a suitable word.
A Raider, per Google, is “a person who attacks an enemy in the enemy’s territory.”
Westfield fit that description on Saturday, not SPF. The Blue Devils entered enemy territory and raided it, stealing, as their plunder, a massive victory.
