Westfield Cruises Past Centreville

Westfield emphatically advanced to the Concorde District semifinals with a 75-56 win over the Wildcats.

After a loss to Chantilly in Westfield’s regular-season finale in which the Bulldogs had multiple chances to force overtime or win in the final seconds, Doug Ewell said his only concern was winning just one game in the district tournament to ensure the Bulldogs a spot in the Northern Region playoff. Since that goal has been accomplished, he sure thinks it would be nice to get some payback.

David Aurora’s hot first half extended Centreville’s defense and allowed Zach Elcano to dominate inside.  The output was the second highest by the Bulldogs this year thanks to their top four scorers all besting their season averages.

“Two things happened: David knocked down three threes in the first half, Julius [Rosa] knocked down one, so that spreads them a little thin, and Zach got an opportunity to do his thing,” Ewell said. Aurora led the way with 18 points, including hitting 4-of-6 shots from behind the arc, Elcano scored 13, Rosa had 12, and Quentin Basil quietly added 11.

The Wildcats responded to an eight-point deficit after one quarter by twice getting within one, but the Bulldogs used a 9-2 run to end the first half to lead 34-26 heading into the break.

“We finished quarters strong tonight, which is something that we sometimes don’t do, so it was really, really good to see us mature enough to finish quarters,” Ewell said.

To start the second half, Elcano, who had struggled to find his touch in the early going, made his first three shots, and Basil scored five points in a span of eight seconds as Westfield’s lead quickly ballooned to 17.

“[The coaching staff said] we can’t guard everything. We were going to try to take away Elcano more, and the risk is you leave somebody open,” Centreville coach Drew Murphy said. “[Aurora] knocked them down, and then Elcano got going. It’s tough to get started that way. You’ve got to give them all the credit.”

As the end result became more evident, the Wildcats struggled to remain disciplined. After getting as close as 11 points, Murphy and Travis Whitney were each called for technical fouls in the fourth quarter, and Jake Brodie narrowly avoided one of his own when he elbowed a defender away after grabbing a rebound.

The lone bright spot on Tuesday, as has been the case for much of the season, was Cam Owens, a first-team Concorde District selection each of the last two years. He led the Wildcats with 18 points and a game-high seven rebounds.  He continued to fight for loose balls until he came off the court for the last time in his high school career with 18 seconds left.

“He never gave up for four straight years, whether we were up 20, down 20, tied, whether he was playing well, the guy played as hard as he possibly could on every possession of his entire career,” Murphy said of the senior. “You don’t say that about everybody, but you say that about him.”

Drakkar Sanders added 13 points for the Wildcats, and Travis Whitney finished with 12.

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season for Centreville. The Wildcats endured their worst regular season finish in five years and have a tough road ahead of them as they lose four of their top five scorers to graduation in Owens, Sanders, Ken Ekanem and Will Doyle.

“I just told some of our younger guys to remember the look on our seniors’ faces of disappointment,” Murphy said. “We can use this for motivation for sure. The whole season we had our ups and downs, and we struggled, and that’s OK to say.”

The Bulldogs, who have had a hot and cold season of their own, hope to be peaking at the right time heading into a rematch with the Chargers, who are hosting the district semifinals and final.

“They’re a tall task, no pun intended,” said Ewell, who apparently did intend to make a pun of matching up with Chantilly’s big men, 7-foot John Manning and 6-foot-8 Jake Weigand. “Hopefully that momentum continues and we’ll have a legitimate shot."

“Now we want to better our seed. We want an opportunity to get another home game. Everybody wants to play for the championship, and you get two opportunities for playing well one time.”