Boys' Basketball: No. 3 Westfield 57, No. 2 Chantilly 49

By Phil Murphy
DigitalSports.com

(Look below the story to find video highlights from Tuesday's game.)

With the temperatures plummeting outside on Westfield's Senior Night and the roads resembling ice rinks more than pavement, the No. 3 Bulldogs appropriately turned to one dubbed "Snowman" in their time of greatest need against No. 2 Chantilly.

Junior forward Will Snow scored 18 points, including his team's only three points of the first quarter, as the Bulldogs stormed back from an early deficit to defeat the visiting Chargers, 57-49.

"We didn't over-hype ourselves or anything," said Snow, who was responsible for eight of Westfield's 17 first-half points. "We just came out, knew they beat us the first time and we had to get them the second time.

"I wasn't going to let our seniors go out like that."

With senior big men Mo Hubbard and Jon Gaston limited to three total field goals and 11 combined points, Snow's 18-point effort could not have come on a better night. Neither a senior nor a starter -- and in only his fourth game since transferring from Paul VI -- Snow's timely contribution surprised many.

But not Westfield Coach Doug Ewell.

"I wasn't surprised," he said. "I do a lot of scouting, but I don't talk to people who scout us. So I couldn't tell you if I should be surprised."

In likely the most heated Northern-Region rivalry, the Chargers' (19-2 overall, 10-2 Concorde District) and Bulldogs' fans both instituted "blackouts." They donned all-black attire in uniformed support of their respective teams. With Tuesday's win, Westfield is 6-0 in blackout games this year dating back to the fall sports season.

"That's definitely the craziest game I've played in," Westfield senior Jamie Richardson said. "It was just an awesome atmosphere."

At the forefront, it was Chantilly that thrived off the palpable mood, starting the game on a 14-0 run. The Chargers did not allow any Bulldog points until Snow's 3-pointer with :53 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

"That's probably the slowest first quarter we've had," Richardson said. "We knew it couldn't get much worse than that, so we had to move up from there. And that's all we did."

Westfield's offense woke up in the second quarter, but only enough to cut one point from the 27-17 Chantilly lead at the break. The Bulldogs had five fewer fouls than points in the first half.

The tide turned in the third period when Richardson and junior Peter Scanlon sparked a decisive, 16-0 run.

Chantilly junior Justin May (game-high 28 points) accounted for all of the Chargers' eight third-quarter points, but they failed to close the gap to fewer than three points at any point in the final period. Westfield outscored Chantilly 40-22 in the second half, thanks in large part to Ewell’s half-time motivational speech.

"Besides all the yelling, he basically told us we had to step up," said Richardson, who scored 17 of his team-high 19 points after half time. "We knew we had to just step up and play our game."

With a win at Herndon on Friday, Westfield (18-2, 10-1) would clinch the top seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming district tournament and, more importantly, earn an automatic berth into the Northern Region Tournament. The Bulldogs defeated the Hornets, 62-46, at home on Jan. 11.

Should Westfield fall short on Herndon's Senior Night, the one seed and all its perks would go to -- who else -- Chantilly.


Email: pmurphy@digitalsports.com

Chantilly  14  13    8  14 -- 49
Westfield   3  14  21  19 -- 57

Chantilly -- May 9 7-12 28; Athearn 5 0-2 10; Manning 2 0-1 4; Decker 1 2-4 4; Tureaud 1 0-2 2; Nolan 0 1-2 1; Team Totals: 18 10-23 49. Westfield -- Richardson 5 8-11 19; Snow 6 3-5 18; Hubbard 2 5-7 9; Scanlon 2 2-2 7; Gaston 1 0-1 2; Kennedy 0 2-8 2; Team Totals: 16 20-33 57.  Three-pointers -- Chantilly 3 (May 3); Westfield 5 (Snow 3, Richardson, Scanlon).