Dewey Dailey, Staff Contributor
WILLIAMSPORT — In a win or go home situation, Westfall brought its A-game.
After a successful regular season, the Mustangs continue their winning ways and start the postseason off on the right foot with a 48-37 victory over Nelsonville-York in a Division III sectional semifinal on Saturday.
The Buckeyes jumped out to a 5-2 lead after a pair of shots from Airah Lavy. However, Westfall answered right back with a 9-2 run to end the quarter behind Gabby Patete and Marissa Mullins for an 11-7 lead after the first.
Westfall was able to widen the margin in the second, led by the Patete-Mullins duo. Mullins did work on both sides of the ball, scoring six points inside but also notching a pair of blocks in the frame.
“Coach always tells us that defense leads to offense, so we always play with our feet and try to stay in front of them,” Mullins said. “We were able to get some offensive rebounds as well for second chance points.”
While Mullins was terrorizing the Buckeyes in the paint, Patete registered the other five points for the Mustangs as they led 22-13 going into halftime.
Maintaining their momentum into the third, the Mustangs continued to feed the ball inside to Mullins and she went to work.
Using her 6-foot-1 frame and length, Mullins showed the touch around the rim and led the team with nine points in the quarter.
Although we haven’t played in nearly 10 days, it’s definitely something we’ve been working on all week,” Patete said. “We really hit it hard with getting the ball into Marissa, because we know if she gets the ball in the paint everyone collapses on her, which opens us up on the outside.”
Mahaley Farmer added a pair of buckets as they maintained a 38-29 lead entering the final frame. That nine-point cushion was more than enough for the Mustangs to close out the victory as the Buckeyes only connected on three shots in the fourth quarter.
Mullins led the team with 19 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks. Gabby Patete finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, and three steals, while Mahaley Farmer added 10 points and four assists.
Westfall advances to a Division III sectional final on Wednesday at 6-seeded Alexander, who defeated Zane Trace to move on.
“There was an exciting feeling going back into the locker room knowing that we’re advancing in the tournament,” Patete said. “Alexander is a really good team, but we’ll prepare as hard as we can for them.”