Hornets nearly upset Gatewood but fall short

The Westfield Hornets (0-5) battled with undefeated Gatewood but came up short in a 51-47 loss on Monday night.

The Hornets were without head coach Willis Jones due to quarantine and assistant coach William Prestridge stepped in and almost led Westfield to an upset win.

“Obviously with the way things happened with our team, we’ve had to be quarantined and stuff like that,” said Prestridge after the game. “We’ve missed a lot of valuable practice time that we need to get these guys. (But) they’re going to get there. They’re working hard. Like you saw tonight, they were right there. Had chances to pull away and just couldn’t but they’re going to get it figured out.”

Westfield capitalized on opportunities early and their defense never allowed Gatewood to go on a run. By halftime, Westfield led 22-18.

Then the Hornets started to hurt themselves more and more with turnovers. The offense began to fizzle out late in the game and Gatewood started to find some shots down the stretch to boost their lead.

Westfield’s defense also showed its holes when some stops were needed for the Hornets to have a chance of tying or taking the lead back.

Gatewood ended up prevailing and the Hornets are still searching for their first win of the season.

“We’re trying to do some different things, working on some different presses,” said Prestridge. (We’re) trying to find a good balance between man and zone defense. We’re trying to find a balance to where we can really control the pace of the games and keep teams where we can compete.

We’ve got to limit turnovers. Turnovers have been a problem for us since the first game. I mean we’re probably averaging 20 a game, maybe more. We put ourselves in good spots then turn it right back over and that’s what hurt us tonight.”

Senior point guard Walker Young led the team in scoring with 13 points and forced some turnovers with his pesky defense. Junior forward Austin Tomlison showed a little bit of everything in his arsenal. From scoring outside to inside to handling the ball in a full court press and rebounding, Tomlinson did a bit of everything. He finished with 12 points and guard Brody McDaniel had nine points.

Westfield’s next game at home on Friday, Jan. 8 against Bethlehem Christian Academy.

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