The pendulum of hope swung one final time, after 30 seconds of whipping from Westfield to Union Catholic and back again. When it finally ceased its nauseating motion, it rested irretrievably on the Union Catholic side.
The No. 4 seed Vikings scooted past the No. 5 seed Blue Devils, 52–50, in the Union County Tournament quarterfinals at Elizabeth’s Dunn Sports Center. The final minute featured a frenzy befitting this grudge match between nearby rivals.
“A play here, a play there,” Theo Sica said, “probably could have won [us] the game.”
With 30 seconds left and the game tied, Westfield had the ball and prepared to hold for a game-winning attempt. But tight tournament games in cavernous gyms tend to perforate those types of sparkling plans.
Westfield lost the ball near midcourt with 8 seconds remaining. A UC player scooped it up and raced to the other end, time expiring, the winning bucket in his hands, a pack of Westfield players in pursuit.
The layup attempt never had a chance.
But a scramble under the rim delivered the Vikings another chance as the ball fell out of play. UC ball, under the rim, 1.66 seconds, tie game. Here came a timeout.
Then came a precise inbounds pass to Keyshawn Winchester under the basket. Winchester looked to the basket, and, somewhere in the limbo between shooting and merely preparing to shoot, was fouled. The whistle blared. Shooting foul. Two shots with 0.57 seconds.
The wait was interminable. The scoreboard went haywire. The officials consulted with each other. Conversations raged. Westfield called a timeout.
When Winchester finally stepped to the line, he calmly stroked the ball through the net twice. Game over? Not quite.
Westfield inbounded to Zach Epp, who caught the ball about 80 feet from the basket and launched it toward the hoop. The trajectory was good. The direction was good.
Front rim. Backboard. No good.
“I wish we could have a couple things back,” head coach James McKeon said. “But we pressured them. I thought we played well. I thought we could’ve done things better in certain situations. It’s a learning process. But I would never want to do it with another group of guys.”
The win sent Union Catholic into Tuesday’s semifinals, to face No. 1 seed Roselle Catholic, the top-ranked team in New Jersey. It sent Westfield home to prepare for the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament, which begins on Feb. 21. The Blue Devils will play a tune-up game on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Marlboro to prevent a long layoff.
Westfield led at halftime, 27–26, after wresting the lead away from Union Catholic despite a slow start. The Vikings’ AJ Altobelli sank a 3-pointer from near midcourt at the halftime buzzer to cut down Westfield’s lead. The Blue Devils maintained their lead for much of the second half.
Shane Sheehan imposed his will in the first half, blocking a couple shots and scoring 14 points, including three 3-pointers. It was Sheehan’s second consecutive game hitting a trio of 3-pointers in a short span.
“Confidence is the biggest thing,” Sheehan said. “I keep shooting them. They keep going in.”
Sheehan finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks. He did it all against Union Catholic’s skyscraping interior sophomore duo of 6-foot-11 Yaw Ansong and 6-foot-8 Farouk Muntari. The pair proved mostly ineffectual against Sheehan and failed to imprint themselves on the offensive end.
TJ Halloran supplemented Sheehan’s team-leading performance with 6 rebounds and 12 points, a pair of which came from the foul line with a minute left to tie the game at 50–50. UC got a combined 32 points from Chimeziri Okeoma and Altobelli.
Westfield now will look to the sectional tournament. Last year, the Blue Devils fell at home to Linden in the semifinal round.
“The goal is not to lose from here on out,” McKeon said. “Something special happens if you don’t lose, right?”
Indeed.
1 comment
never hold for last shot before half or at end of games. 7 out of 8 times . . . turnovers. offensive players get tight and start listening for the next instruction.