After securing a victory at the Hall of Fame Classic last week, is Westfield resting on its laurels?
Nope. In fact, quite the opposite. The Shamrocks dove into a busy part of their schedule on Tuesday by hosting a very good Mount Vernon team at CSI Gymnasium. In a high-scoring game, Westfield beat the Marauders 87-78.
Both teams were coming off memorable weeks. The Shamrocks’ victory at the Hall of Fame catapulted them to No. 3 in this week’s IBCA one-class poll, and the Associated Press Class 4A poll at No. 7.
Mount Vernon, meanwhile, made noise last week by beating then-No. 1 Zionsville on Dec. 28, and that put the Marauders on the IBCA poll at No. 18. The win also got them votes in the AP poll. Westfield coach Shane Sumpter said that the Marauders are “very good” and have a couple of Division I college players on their roster.
“We had our hands full tonight,” said Sumpter.
Westfield’s offense was up to the Mount Vernon challenge, as the ‘Rocks poured in at least 20 points in each period. The game was tied at 20-20 after the first quarter, with Nic Depasquale scoring seven points and Braden Smith making a pair of 3-pointers for six points.
The Shamrocks then stepped it up on the defensive end in the second quarter, holding the Marauders to eight points. That enabled Westfield to take a 42-28 lead at halftime. Trey Buchanan caught fire during that period, nailing four 3s for 12 points.
Mount Vernon slightly outscored the ‘Rocks in both the third and fourth quarters, but Westfield was able to hang on. Smith did his part, erupting for 18 points in the second half, 10 in the third period. Alex Romack helped out in the fourth quarter with eight points.
“We had to weather the storm there in the fourth quarter, but we got a lot of contributions from a lot of guys,” said Sumpter.
In fact, five Shamrocks players reached double figures in scoring. Smith led the way with 30 points, while Buchanan totaled five 3-pointers for 15 points. Depasquale and Romack each scored 12 and Cam Haffner added 11 points.
“Pretty balanced attack again tonight,” said Sumpter. The coach said that whenever other players step up to take the load off leading scorers Smith and Haffner, he thinks the ‘Rocks are “just a much better basketball team.”
Westfield is 7-2 and has won five straight games. The Shamrocks continue their busy week Friday with a trip to Yorktown, then return home to CSI Gymnasium on Saturday for a huge game: Westfield will play Carmel, the new No. 1 team in the IBCA and AP polls.
WESTFIELD 87, MOUNT VERNON 78
Westfield FG FT TP PF
Braden Smith 11 6-6 30 3
Cam Haffner 4 1-1 11 1
Trey Dorton 1 0-0 2 1
Nic Depasquale 5 1-2 12 1
Alex Romack 4 4-4 12 5
Trey Buchanan 5 0-0 15 1
Kai Butterworth 1 3-4 5 1
Jonah Spinner 0 0-0 0 0
Totals 31 15-17 87 13
Score by Quarters
Mount Vernon 20 8 24 26 – 78
Westfield 20 22 20 25 – 87
Westfield 3-pointers (10) Buchanan 5, Smith 2, Haffner 2, Depasquale 1.