Down two to Elizabeth with three seconds left, Westfield had the ball on the opposite end of their scoring basket. Three seconds is not a long time, but in basketball, a quick shot could mean the difference between a win and a loss. Senior captain Sara Rooney, a dominant force for the Blue Devils, throws in a pass to freshman Maren Fowler. The last glimpse of hope. Fowler, past the halfcourt line, chucks the ball into the air and the crowd watches in awe as the ball hits in and out of the basket. The buzzer rang. Elizabeth defeated Westfield, 50-48.
Head coach Liz McKeon said, “We got three seconds left to run a play, and we ran it beautifully. And Maren had a great chance. And it just didn’t go our way. But it shouldn’t come down to that. When you have 30 turnovers, you’re not beating anybody.”
McKeon was right: turnovers have been a parasite to Westfield all season long. Laying on a now 2-6 record, Rooney said, “The thing that has been really killing us every single game has been our turnovers. At this point, we’re just beating ourselves.”
The first quarter set the tone for the game with Elizabeth leading, 12-11, going into the second. Throughout the game, it would be a battle to get ahead, to score one more point, to seal the lead.
The second quarter gave the Blue Devils more hope than the last. With continuous running up and down the court, both teams struggled to defend each other from scoring. Rooney was able to end off the second quarter with a layup, and Westfield took the lead by a few points going into the third quarter, 28-24.
The third quarter became more intense. Halfway through, the game was tied at 32-32. An equal opportunity, a fair game. Both bleachers started to heat up as fans were screaming at the players on the court, some comments more derogatory than others. Despite the effort from Westfield’s man-on-man defense, they let up five points. The score was a disappointing, 41-36.
That’s when the intensity heighted. The crowd encouraged it. They egged on the players; it was a physical brawl.
Quarter four, the final eight minutes of the game, heart began to come through. With Westfield starting down, 41-36, they fought hard to close the gap. Freshman Catherine Oliveira was not afraid of the physicality. Even after taking a fall, Oliveira stayed tight to her opponent, proceeding to steal the ball from her during a pass. Later in the quarter, she got pulled down by her jersey, but she came back up to give her team an extra point from a foul shot.
“One thing you could say about our team is that we are always going to work hard. Sometimes, our shots are not going to fall, and we might have a lot of turnovers, but we always work hard and try to play our hardest. I think that we have a lot more heart than other teams,” said Rooney.
At the end of the day, although Westfield had the heart to win, turnovers and weak defense killed them in their match against Elizabeth.
Westfield will attempt to fix their mistakes during their next match on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at home against New Providence, hoping to get another win under their belts.
