Westfield went up. Then West Orange reclaimed the lead. And then, at the sound of the buzzer, thanks to Paige Gorczyca, Westfield was able to take home a win in the Martin Luther King College Showcase.
It was an intense final minute of the game as each team went back and forth claiming the lead. After a Westfield timeout, 13 seconds remained in the game and the Blue Devils were down by a single point. Westfield was desperately looking for the opportunity to score when it had the ball under the basket. Annie Ryan got the ball off of the inbound and attempted a deep three, but Megan Logan was able to snatch the rebound and then find Gorczyca who was able to nail the shot right off the glass as the final buzzer sounded.
The beginning of the game was not promising for Westfield, as West Orange came out hungry to play. Although Westfield was able to take down a highly-ranked New Providence team in its most recent game, the Mountaineers were not afraid to give Westfield a run for its money.
After scoring the first points of the game, West Orange could not be stopped in the first half. The first quarter ended with Westfield only trailing by one point, but West Orange’s intensity had yet to be matched by the Blue Devils.
The second quarter followed suit for the Mountaineers. West Orange increased its energy, while Westfield still seemed to lack it. Westfield wasn’t able to get on the board in the second quarter until Cara Van Allen connected on a two-point field goal nearly two minutes into the quarter. Van Allen brought the intensity each time she stepped on the court and tallied 7 points to Westfield’s final 49 points. “I just tried to pick us up in any way, offensively and defensively,” Van Allen said.
West Orange had an 11-point lead at the half. The Blue Devils came out of the second half gates angry, ready to give the second half their all. Westfield had won each of its four games leading up to this game and wasn’t ready to end the streak just yet. During halftime, head coach Liz McKeon said, “It was very intense. The things we had on Thursday we didn’t have for 90 percent of this game and the girls needed to dig deep and stop hanging their heads.”
During the third quarter, the Mountaineers went up by 14, the largest margin of the game thus far, but they lost this massive lead and ended the quarter only leading by one point after Ryan made a 3-pointer at the buzzer. From that moment, Westfield’s energy increased even more as the fourth-quarter lead seesawed. Sutton Factor put Westfield ahead by scoring the first points of the fourth quarter less than a minute in. It was just a matter of time before someone would have to make the winning basket.
Westfield’s leading scorers of the game were Gorczyca and Factor, each with 12 points and the West Orange highest scorer totaled 27 points.
In order to pull through in this game, McKeon said, “We needed heart and we needed hustle.” And Westfield was able to use just that when it stepped onto the court in the second half. Westfield will also look to use this momentum in its upcoming games, the next one being against Roselle Catholic who they previously lost to this season.
