Amijanae George dribbles down the court for a counter attack against North Vermilion. 

When Westgate hosted North Vermilion on Friday for Senior Night, the Tigers desperately needed a win. With a 7-18 record, the Tigers are hanging on just outside of a playoff spot. A win against the Patriots would keep their postseason hunt alive, but they would need someone to step up and lead the team to a victory.

Enter senior Brailon Raymond, who scored nine three-pointers on his way to a 35-point performance to lift the Tigers to a 71-41 victory.

The game started slowly for both teams, with neither team able to get on the scoreboard for the opening two minutes. Head coach Olivier Winston said that the changed lineup for Senior Night caused his team to struggle with their rhythm early on, but they quickly settled into the game.

“We started five seniors and we normally don’t do that, so the continuity right off the bat wasn’t as great as it should have been,” he explained. “Once they got themselves in a rhythm they went for the win.”

The Tigers established their control of the game early, using their speed to press North Vermilion high up the court before winning the turnover and feeding Raymond the ball for a perimeter shot.

Winston said that he didn’t expect Raymond to have so many opportunities to shoot from distance, but once they started to fall the senior never looked back.

“For whatever reason, that’s what they were giving us,” Winston said of the North Vermilion team. “As soon as he started hitting a couple, the kids just kept feeding him the ball.”

With a 15-point lead heading into the halftime break, North Vermilion tried to mount a comeback. Scoring six unanswered points just before the end of the quarter, the Patriots were able to cut the deficit to nine as the buzzer sounded.

The Tigers answered back quickly, holding North Vermilion to just five points in the third quarter while scoring 18 themselves. Raymond found success from the wide areas, scoring all four of his shots from distance to add 12 points to the Tigers’ lead.

Just as important as the accurate shooting was Westgate’s disciplined defensive performance, led by senior Jacavion Jacob. Jacob, who provided the Tigers with a powerful presence in the key, dramatically swatted away two shots at the glass to get the Westgate fans and coaches on their feet with excitement.

Winston said that Jacob’s defensive performances will play a big part in their late-season chase for a playoff spot.

“He’s going to be important (in the final games of the season),” said Winston. “I thought that defensively we were tuned-in a little better today. He did a good job rebounding and getting blocks, protecting the rim, he had a good game.”

The Tigers’ performance was a nice change of pace from their previous performances in February. Losses to STM, NISH and Northside left Westgate in the No. 33 spot in Division I, just outside of playoff safety. Winston said that the difference came down to the team not hurting itself.

“We can’t hurt ourselves. That’s been our Achilles heel all season,” he explained. “We can use the excuse that we started late but most of the games where we haven’t been as successful as we should have been, it’s because we’ve hurt ourselves. We’ve turned the ball over in bad situations, so the biggest thing for us is not to hurt ourselves.”

Despite struggling with consistency this year, Winston said that his team never lacked effort or intensity.

“I think they are (locked in),” he said of his team. “I can’t remember a game where our effort wasn’t good, it’s just our execution that’s been off. Tonight, for three quarters of the game, we did a good job of executing. It’s never been a question of effort or working hard, sometimes all that energy and burn we use isn’t focused right to execute. I thought we did a better job of that tonight.”

With a commanding lead, the Tigers were able to bring on several players from the bench for some all-important varsity minutes. Despite leading by nearly 30 points, the Westgate coaches couldn’t keep their seniors off the court for long. Winston said that he was proud of how the senior class has performed this year, especially in the face of so much adversity.

“I’m proud of the seniors that stuck it out with us even though it was a hard year. We’ll go after these last two games and we’ll see what happens.”

The Tigers will travel to LCA on Tuesday and Teurlings on Friday to close out the regular season. Currently, Westgate is trailing No. 32 Central BR by just .23 power points, and can possibly make the jump into a playoff position with a win over either team next week.

North Vermilion 42, Westgate 35

The Westgate girls basketball team wasn’t as successful against North Vermilion as the boys team, but did put in a strong showing for Senior Night.

Led on offense by Anireal Allen with 12 points, the Lady Tigers were able to mount a late rally that nearly paid off with a win.

Unfortunately, despite scoring 10 points in each of the final three quarters, Westgate’s five-point performance in the first quarter proved to be too much to overcome.

Keilah Batiste scored six points against North Vermilion. Amijanae George, Trinitee Lewis, and Iraonse Batiste each scored four points against the Lady Patriots.