Westlake Beats the Bears in Overtime to Claim League Title
By Andy Jacobs
More than a half dozen years have passed since a Westlake girls’ basketball team last earned a league championship. But last Thursday afternoon, the 2021-22 Wildcats put an end to the drought in the unlikeliest of ways.
Without scoring a single basket in overtime, the Wildcats were still able to take command of the four-minute extra session, hitting 10 consecutive free throws while nearly shutting out host Briarcliff for a 61-54 victory that provided a thrilling finish to Westlake’s season-long quest for a title.
“This was a great high school game. Both teams really went after it,” said Westlake head coach Sean Mayer afterwards. “There were some huge shots from us, and them, at the end. Clutch shots, clutch free throws and, you know, it’s one of those games where one team, unfortunately, had to lose it. Both teams really played hard.”
Sami Oswald finished with 18 points and Julie Lyden added 16 for the Wildcats, who improved to 14-5 with the win and clinched the Conference III, League C crown. In the final minute of overtime, it was Oswald who made six straight free throws to help Westlake seal the outcome.
Briarcliff, which dropped to 12-7 with the loss, got 20 points from Caroline Barbalato, 17 from Cat Carrafiello and 12 from Rebecca Kratz. The Bears held a one-point lead at halftime, but found themselves trailing 44-32 early in the fourth quarter before mounting a rousing comeback down the stretch.
“I was super proud of ‘em. They stepped up, they tried their best,” said Bears coach Denise Hamlin, whose team had lost to Westlake by 28 points just three weeks earlier. “They worked all week long and they wanted to prove, I think more to themselves, they were better than that outing they had. And they did.”
The Wildcats, clinging to a four-point lead after three quarters, seemingly seized control for good when they began the fourth with a basket by Jenny Straface and then two straight 3-pointers from Allie Castellone. But the Bears then stormed back with a four-minute blitz, outscoring Westlake 14-2 to tie the game at 46-apiece.
The big Briarcliff run was sparked by a couple of buckets by Kratz and five crucial points from sophomore Adrianna Scanga, including a 3-point shot that cut the Bears’ deficit to just two with 1:45 remaining. A pair of free throws by Barbalato 28 seconds later tied the score.
In the tension-filled final minute of regulation, both teams held brief leads. Oswald drove the lane for a shot that rolled in, giving Westlake a 48-46 edge with 57 seconds to go. A 10-second violation on the Wildcats with 36 seconds on the clock set the stage for the Bears’ Carrafiello to deliver a left-elbow 3-point shot off the dribble 10 seconds later that gave Briarcliff a one-point lead.
A free throw by Castellone with 15.8 seconds left and then two more from Oswald with 11.2 remaining put Westlake back in front, 51-49. But the speedy Barbalato was knocked to the floor on a drive to the basket and calmly tied the game with two foul shots with 8.1 seconds on the clock. The Wildcats had a chance to win at the buzzer, but Castellone misfired on a 19-foot jumper from the right corner.
“I can tell you, when we went into overtime, we had a positive, positive bench that was excited for one more quarter,” said Mayer. “So they didn’t have their heads down. You know, we didn’t just blow a 20-point lead. We were trying to double some players, left some others open and to their credit they made the shots. They hit a huge 3, we didn’t get the ball across. That was a little bit of a mistake. But we stayed focused.”
In the overtime session, the Wildcats regained the lead for good with two Lyden free throws with 2:43 left. Junior point guard ToniAnn Mastraccchio gave Westlake a 55-51 advantage with two more foul shots with 1:05 to go. In the final minute, the desperate Bears sent Oswald to the line three different times and she hit all six of her attempts, stretching the lead to 10 points.
Briarcliff missed all eight of its shots from the floor in overtime until Barbalato finally drained a 25-foot shot at the buzzer. To coach Hamlin, it was another disappointing ending for a team suddenly in the midst of a three-game losing streak.
“A couple bounces here or there might’ve made a difference,” she said. “You know, they just doubt themselves sometimes. They lose confidence at times and I’m trying to be their biggest cheerleader, telling them they can do it. Today, they told each other they can do it. They were each other’s cheerleaders and I think that’s what brought us back in the game.”
Meanwhile, Westlake, which routed Haldane a day later, wound up finishing the regular season with a four-game winning streak, its second one since the start of 2022. According to Mayer, his players are anxious to extend their current success well into the sectional playoffs.
“They’re excited,” he said. “But they have to stay focused and be ready to go each night because there’s so many teams that can make a run. We’re one of them, but there’s a lot more as well and we know that. We’ll see what happens.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
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