With the clock winding down in the third quarter, the pressure was on in the first round of the North 2, Group 4 sectional tournament. The wide expanse of the Franklin gym echoed with energy. Senior captain Shane Sheehan received the ball low under the net. Westfield’s fans sat up in their seats, anticipating what was coming next. Sheehan dribbled once, turned with ease and dunked the ball, hanging onto the rim for a short while longer. Although a usual crowd pleaser, the sequence was not met with its usual excitement and cheers, as the shot only brought Franklin’s lead down to a disheartening, 57-29. The Blue Devils celebrated for only a moment then hustled back onto defense as dispirited as before.
Westfield’s 68-43 loss to Franklin marked the end of their season with a first-round exit from the NJSIAA tournament. The 14-12 Blue Devils were the No. 10 seed and the Warriors held the No. 7 seed with a 15-11 record on the season. The matchup was defined by Franklin’s suffocating defense, racking up points off of steals and relentless 3-point shooting.
Junior Enzo Ferrero said, “They were just quicker than us, and they were more ready than us. They thought they were going to win the game.” He reflected that they did not come in with as optimistic an attitude as Franklin, a fatal flaw.
The first quarter began with a quick two points from Franklin. Ferrero responded with a 3-pointer, and it was looking like an exciting first-round states matchup. Franklin quickly brought the score to 61-5 with two minutes left in the quarter. The quarter finished when Shane Sheehan passed a quick ball to Enzo Ferrero on a back-door cut, bringing the quarter to an end with a score of 20-7.
Head coach James McKeon credited Franklin’s early lead to Westfield’s inability to stay in front of players on defense. He said that “they got what they wanted offensively at will, which is really surprising to me with what we’re capable of and what I watched. Hats off to them. They did whatever they wanted.”
The second quarter yielded more of the same for the Blue Devils. Unable to make an impactful run, they stayed behind Franklin by a significant margin. Scores from sophomores Connor Whelan and Max Maceacheron, along with Sheehan, kept Westfield in it. Sheehan was the team’s highest scorer with 15 points.
“We just had to try and get something going, obviously the score was what the score was, but we tried to do whatever we could to just stay in the game,” said Sheehan.
Despite the captain’s strong performance, the Blue Devils entered halftime down, 39-23. “”[It] should have been a lot worse after how we played,” said McKeon. “I wasn’t actually that mad at halftime about being [down] 16.” According to their head coach, Westfield seemed to have gotten away with two mediocre quarters of play, it was not quite done yet. Franklin’s offense was tough to guard all game, and it did not stop at halftime.
“They continued the barrage of shooting threes and getting into the paint at will,” said McKeon. “That kind of killed us and made our defense a game of spacing. We had to help the middle instead of giving up layups, and they were hitting threes from everywhere. Multiple guys that usually don’t hit [3-pointers] hit them for them, but it’s the states. You’ve got to show up and defend, and they showed up, and now we’re going home.”
On the other side of the court, Westfield came out in the third quarter with a quick 3-pointer from sophomore Jake Russell. In spite of the Blue Devils’ best efforts, Franklin kept pulling away. Their strong defense left Westfield with no options repeatedly. With 45 seconds left in the quarter, junior Will Kirby’s layup brought the score to 61-33.
Franklin’s 3-point shooting was the defining part of their offense’s success, especially in the second half. McKeon said that the Warriors played even faster in person than on film: “We watched a ton of film on them. I thought we were prepared. I was excited about going in and getting a matchup but it wasn’t our night.”
The coaching staff also made sure to game plan against Franklin’s star players, number 2 Cam Brown and number 10 Landen Miller. They were specifically focused on those two in film and not the team’s shooting from deep. “That’s the thing,” said McKeon. “They don’t usually shoot it like that. They did today, and our game plan was to try to stop 10 and 2… we thought going into the game, if both those guys were pushing 20, we’re going to be in [trouble]… And then the other guys get involved because they help so much.” Franklin’s stars did exactly what McKeon feared. Brown and Miller had 21 and 17 points, respectively.
The score remained at 66-33 for the majority of the fourth quarter, and the defeat on Westfield’s faces was evident. Finally, with five minutes left, junior Zach Epp sank a 3-pointer to bring it to 66-36. The clock winded down, but the Blue Devils continued to fight. With only 30 seconds left, senior Stephen Edwards let a 3-pointer fly, the last shot of the game and of his Westfield basketball career. It arced through the air, on a crusade towards the basket. Bang. With ice in his veins, Edwards nonchalantly strode back on defense, knowing he left his mark.
“It felt good,” he said. “You’ve got to end on a good note. Tough loss, but it felt good to make one last shot.”
The 68-43 defeat was hard to stomach as an end to a long season, but it did not reflect the team’s dedication and growth throughout.
Sheehan said, “I’m super proud of the guys. We had kind of a rough start, but I think we really stepped up as the season went on and just came together instead of letting the adversity break our team. I’m really proud of the guys for fighting through all of that.”
As for McKeon’s views on the season, he said, “I’m happy with it. I’m always happy because the guys compete every time we ask them to. I don’t care about our record. Where we started and where we’re ending, we’re a better basketball team. And that’s the name of the season. That’s the growth.”
He noted the difficulty of the conference they play in year in and year out. He said that this year “we won 14 games. It’s pretty impressive, and it has a lot to do with Shane being the leader of this team. Edwards being a part of it, a guy that you always want to be a part of your team.”
As for the future, McKeon said, “Hopefully it just carries through… we have five consecutive winning seasons… that happened way before these guys were in high school. So then what the guys coming up need to do is the same thing and we just compete one day at a time.”
Edwards was optimistic about next year’s team: “There’s only two seniors leaving, so the core is still there. Good luck to them next year. I think they’re going to do pretty well.”
