Frank Speziale Photo

SYRACUSE – The powerful and always dangerous Westhill Warriors hailing from Syracuse have punched their ticket to yet another final-four appearance in the New York State boys basketball state playoffs – following their 73-54 dismantling of the Norwich Purple Tornado.

“We came up short last year, so we have some unfinished business to finish up. We're going to work hard this week and get ready to play next weekend,” said Westhill junior Sean Dadey. “Last season was tough, we had some injuries so we came up short. But this year's team is special and anybody is capable of having a big game so that is why we are going to go far.”

And that is exactly what the Warriors did in the quarterfinals of the NYS Class B playoffs on Saturday, March 11, when Norwich came to town – spread the ball around while playing solid defense. Through this process Westhill managed to have five players hit double-digit figures in scoring for the game – with Dadey leading the way at 16 points.

“Four or five guys today were in double figures so we are really more of an unselfish team that anybody is capable of scoring in the high numbers, so it's special,” said Dadey following his team leading performance in the win.

In the execution of the game plans from both squads, Norwich senior Chris Jeffrey – Norwich's leading scorer in their past few games through the Section IV Class B tournament – was limited to a mere nine points in the loss to Westhill.

“We played them exactly how we wanted in the first half. We wanted to keep them out of transition and make them make contested shots. Unfortunately they made those contested shots at a very high rate,” said Norwich head coach Brian Collier. “Thus we played closer and they got us with backdoor cuts, so it became a pick your poison. Offensively we scored early with good execution, but they picked up their physicality on our drives and in the post and we had a hard time adjusting.”

With tip-off underway at 1 p.m. this past Saturday, all was laid out on the line for the two hopeful state playoff teams – Norwich (Section IV champs ranked 24th in the state at 17-5) and Westhill (Section III champs ranked 2nd in the state at 22-1).

Much like Collier attested, Norwich came out blazing in the first period – grabbing their first lead of the night when Norwich senior Tre Bonham dropped his first of two three-pointers :34 seconds into the game to take the 3-2 lead. Fellow senior – Jeffrey – looked to find the scorebook early when he added two more points for the Tornado with 7:03 left in the first period – extending the Norwich lead to 5-2.

Unfortunately for the hopeful Norwich players and their faithful crowd of fans – who notably made up a majority of the fans in attendance at Onondaga Community College – that would be the final time in the game that Norwich scored while holding a lead.

Dadey dropped in a field goal at 6:52 – a mere :11 seconds after Jeffrey scored – cutting into the lead. Fellow Warrior, senior Antonio Scrimale, stole a pass in the next possession, racing down the court for the basket to reclaim the Westhill lead at 6-5 with 6:30 left to play still in the first period.

Norwich led second-ranked for a combined :56 seconds in the game – essentially the top-ranked team after top-seeded 24-0 Glens Falls was upset by 19th ranked Canton on March 7, 87-63.

Following their hot start, followed by a late Westhill push, Norwich headed into the second half down just 23-17.

The following two periods surrounding the halftime break proved to be the breaking point for the Tornado, as the Warriors attacked often to truly pull away on the scoreboard.

“Close to it, yeah probably.” Said Westhill senior Kameren Jackson who contributed 10 points in the win when asked if Westhill played their best game of basketball during the 73-54 win – before following it up with how it feels to move onto the final-four. “Feels great, but it doesn’t feel like anything new honestly. It still feels like the regular season to me, until next week.”

Westhill – who fell short of a state final-four last year – is a team who had won the NYS Class B state title most recently in 2010, 2014, and in 2015, before Olean of Section VI won in 2016 defeating Marlboro 56-45.

“We really shut them down offensively, we played great defense. We got out in transition and played our game, which is where a lot of our points came from. We just got to keep working hard. With defense comes offense, so we get down and really dig down on defense and we'll really get to play our game in transition,” said Dadey. “Well we are thinking ahead, not too far but to the next game. We have to focus on each possession, we're not really looking at the bigger picture but more each game, and really get ready to play each possession.