Despite a strong push by the Blue Devils late in the game, it wasn’t enough as the New Providence Pioneers went on to win and extend their dominant, undefeated streak.
This game was highly anticipated, featuring two top teams from the Union County Conference. The Blue Devils had a 9-1 record and aimed to bounce back from their loss on Saturday to West Orange, the team that knocked them out of the state tournament last year. Meanwhile, the Pioneers came in hot, undefeated all season, looking to keep that streak alive.
The game started somewhat slowly. Both teams played tough defense, with each team trading buckets. The first quarter ended with New Providence leading 8-5. The second quarter was where trouble began for the Blue Devils. New Providence’s guard Annie Conover led the way with 24 points for the Pioneers and got especially hot in the second quarter. The Pioneers went on a 13-0 run to take a 20-7 lead, forcing a timeout for the Blue Devils. Senior co-captain Megan Logan knew that Conover was a good player and one to watch, “We let [Conover] shoot her threes, and we knew she was gonna make threes against us.”
The Blue Devils responded with made shots from many different players, but despite their efforts, they went into halftime trailing 23-14. Head coach Liz McKeon spoke about the team’s performance, saying, “We have to be better.”
Coming out of the second half, the Blue Devils looked to attack and try to cut the deficit. After a back and forth third quarter, Westfield was able to cut the lead to 31-25, setting up for a huge fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter would end up being much like how the game went. The team struggled to hit shots, and the Pioneers went on to outscore the Blue Devils 17-9 in the fourth quarter, leading to a 48-34 win for the Pioneers.
This marked the sixth straight loss for the Blue Devils against New Providence. Mairin Fowler, junior guard, stated, “We just had two really tough games, but we have to just move on. We have a long season, and if we dwell on the past and focus on our losses, we’re not gonna get better. So we’re just gonna use our mistakes that we made today, and do better, going forward.
Westfield has now crossed the halfway point through the season and with 10 games remaining in the regular season they look to use these losses as momentum and learning moments going forward.
Westfield looks to get back on track after losing their first two games of the season. “We need to bounce back, ” McKeon stated, “We need to just regroup, and forget about today, and just start thinking about Franklin. We cannot feel sorry for ourselves. We just need to move on to the next game.”
The Blue Devils will face a new opponent as they will take on Franklin who they have only played 3 times in the last 10 years. The game will be at 5:30 p.m. at home and the team will be looking to get back in the win column.
