On their first possession of the game, the Blue Devils drove down the court looking to make a statement after a tough loss to Plainfield last weekend. Jake Russell immediately drilled a three-pointer to give Westfield the game’s first lead. After Pioneer Academy’s inbound, Tyshawn Pearson and Russell were able to collect a steal which led to a Pearson layup. 30 seconds had not passed by the time the Blue Devils forced another turnover, putting the ball back into the hands of Jake Russell, who pulled up to sink his second three-pointer. The Blue Devils now had five points off of turnovers in the first minute of play alone, climbing to an early 8-0 lead.
Westfield only increased the pressure, forcing their opponents to turn the ball over excessively. This allowed the Blue Devils to jump out to an impressive 20-0 lead in the first five minutes of play, capped by a Shane Sheehan dunk. A swift 20 unanswered points was certainly the statement Westfield was looking to make.
“In the first quarter, I think we did a great job with intensity and playing fast,” said co-captain Sheehan. Sheehan was Westfield’s high scorer, scoring 24 points and dominating the paint for the majority of the game, with all 24 of his points coming from two-point layups and dunks.
However hot the Blue Devils came out of the gate, they cooled down drastically, scoring only four points in the second quarter. “You go up, and you think it’s going to be that way the whole time. They’re going to work, they’re not going to quit,” said head coach James McKeon. Pioneer Academy, who was losing 27-17 at the end of the first quarter, cut the lead to 9 by the half. Westfield failed to connect on several three-pointers and took many wild shots from right under the basket. The Blue Devils appeared to be playing timid, putting up bad shots from outside the key instead of looking for penetration underneath.
“We rolled out fast in the first and we kinda expected them to roll over and hand it to us, but they didn’t. I think it shows us we need to keep the foot on the gas the entire time and take what we want instead of looking for handouts,” said Sheehan.
Though Pioneer Academy was clearly the inferior team on the court, Westfield did not appear to play too well, turning the ball over many times. “That was embarrassing, we should have won by 50,” said senior Stephen Edwards.
Many of these turnovers were unforced and gave Pioneer Academy free possessions. “Still wasn’t great. These were unforced,” McKeon explained, “so it’s us doing against ourselves, so that can change overnight really.” While this game seemed to have a turnover problem, the aforementioned game against Plainfield had it much worse. The 60-41 loss was littered with unforced turnovers, but the Blue Devils seemed to have improved a little over a week’s time. “We just valued the basketball. We talked about it, it’s all about control. We valued the ball more and we shared it so it was easier instead of trying to take 1-on-1 stuff,” he added.
Even through the Blue Devil’s ball-handling struggles, they were able to secure the win and will search for their second win in a row this Sunday against South Plainfield at Kean University at 12:00 p.m..
