Westfield defeated Columbia, 74-57, in a physical battle on Tuesday for its 11th win of the season.
Westfield started off hot, quickly jumping out to a 6-point lead. The Blue Devils dominated on the offensive side of the ball. Westfield secured its highest score of the season, dropping 10 threes against a struggling Cougar defense. The Blue Devils dominated through offensive rebounds and continued to attack the Cougar side of the court, unrelenting in their offensive drives.
“It felt good to bounce back and to have the offensive output we had today compared to Saturday,” said head coach Liz McKeon.
Defensively, Westfield struggled at various points in the game, yielding 57 points, 26 of which came from Columbia senior Shana Desir. The defense, though, recovered in the fourth quarter, limiting Columbia to only 12 points, the Cougars’ lowest-scoring quarter of the game, and cementing the win.
“I think because things weren’t working on the defensive end they were trying to figure out how to get through this game and pull it out, and they pulled it off offensively,” said McKeon.
Westfield was led by senior co-captains Annie Ryan (22 points, 5 steals, 1 block) and Paige Gorczyca (20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists). Ryan, who currently leads the team this season in points with 177, provided an early burst to the Blue Devil offense. Gorczyca’s back to back-to-back 3-point plays in the third quarter provided Westfield the offensive spark it needed to secure the victory. Both Ryan and Gorczyca dropped 4 threes during the game.
“Definitely brought up our energy a lot and increased ball movement, because we know our tendency is on offense and we made good plays as a team,” said Gorczyca.
Ryan and Gorczyca were followed by Catie Carayannopoulos (12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks), Sara Rooney (8 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals), Megan Logan (7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists) and co-captain Sutton Factor (5 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists).
Westfield now looks forward to its matchup against Summit on Thursday at 6 p.m. on the road. Westfield previously defeated Summit, 48-24.
