By RICHIE HALL
WESTFIELD – After a big win last Saturday, the Westfield boys basketball team didn’t have a letdown when it hosted Pendleton Heights on Tuesday.
Instead, the Shamrocks didn’t let up. Westfield ran away with the fourth quarter in its home opener, eventually beating the Arabians 64-39 at CSI Gymnasium.
The ‘Rocks were coming off a victory at Kokomo, last year’s Class 4A state runner-up.
“That’s in the back of our heads, it’s in the back of everyone’s head,” said Westfield senior Trey Buchanan. “After a big win, you don’t want to come back in the next game and just have a letdown. We knew that’s not what we wanted to do, so we locked in there in the second quarter and second half to make sure that didn’t happen.”
“It’s a good start,” said ‘Rocks coach Shane Sumpter. “We got things that we got to clean up, but it’s nice to do that when you win. We’ve been a tough team here at home.”
The Shamrocks outscored Pendleton in each of the four quarters. They trailed early in the first, but used a 7-0 run to take the lead, and eventually finish the first period up 12-9. Five Westfield players scored, with Nic Book getting four points and Caleb Wise hitting a 3-pointer.
The Arabians tied the game twice in the second quarter; doing so both times by nailing 3s. Then Buchanan got hot, taking over the game with back-to-back triples, a traditional three-point play and a rebound basket to score 11 points in the period. Wise threw in his second 3 of the game, and that helped Westfield to a 31-21 halftime lead.
“It was just a matter of when I could break the lid off,” said Buchanan. “I know my team’s got my back. They told me to keep shooting, so that’s what I did and eventually started knocking them down.”
Players on the Westfield third-grade travel team took to the floor during halftime of the varsity game. (Richie Hall)
Pendleton Heights was within 33-26 midway through the third quarter before Buchanan drained another 3 and Book made a dunk. Those baskets began a 23-6 spurt that lasted until the midway point of the fourth period. Will Harvey helped out a couple of 3s in the early part of the fourth quarter, and Farrell hit a triple later in the period.
“We made a lot of shots in the second half too,” said Sumpter. “Shots that just didn’t fall in the first half.”
Sumpter credited his team with picking it up defensively in the second half. The coach said that “some of the defensive mistakes that we made in the first half, I thought we didn’t make those in the second half.” As a result, Westfield was able to get a comfortable lead, “and once we got a 10-point lead, we were able to sustain that,” said Sumpter.
Buchanan led with 21 points, followed by Harvey with 14 points. Both players drained four 3-pointers. Book added 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots; Harvey also had seven rebounds. Farrell pulled five rebounds.
Westfield is 2-0 and opens Hoosier Crossroads Conference play Friday by hosting Zionsville.
“We’re looking forward to a big challenge, a big conference game here Friday night against a good basketball team,” said Sumpter.
WESTFIELD 64, PENDLETON HEIGHTS 39
Westfield FG FT TP PF
Charles Farrell 2-6 1-2 6 2
Trey Buchanan 7-16 3-3 21 2
Caleb Wise 2-6 0-0 6 1
Nic Book 4-10 2-2 10 2
Durante Morton 1-3 1-2 3 2
Will Harvey 5-7 0-0 14 2
Carsen Melvin 1-2 0-2 2 1
Drew Haffner 0-4 0-0 0 2
Rylan Rauch 0-1 0-0 0 3
Jalen Malone 0-1 0-0 0 0
Brock Detamore 1-2 0-0 2 1
Brody Sutton 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 23-58 7-11 64 18
Score by Quarters
Pendleton Heights 9 12 7 11 – 39
Westfield 12 19 10 23 – 64
Westfield 3-point shooting (11-33) Buchanan 4-13, Harvey 4-6, Wise 2-5, Farrell 1-3, Haffner 0-4, Malone 0-1, Detamore 0-1.
Westfield rebounds (35) Harvey 7, Book 7, Farrell 5, Buchanan 4, Rauch 2, Melvin 2, Morton 2, Haffner 1, Malone 1, team 4.