The Westhill boys basketball team was over 1,200 miles away from home and facing its toughest challenge of the season so far on Saturday.
The Wolf Pack trailed West Virginia’s 4A state champion, Spring Mills, by one point with seven seconds left in the final game of the program’s first trip to Florida for the prestigious KSA Pre-Holiday Tournament.
With the ball in the hands of Westhill’s reigning large school basketball player of the year, Eli Prince, the Wolf Pack advanced the ball up the court with ease.
Spring Mills’ defense collapsed on Prince and the crafty senior found fellow senior Jackson Goodness streaking down the middle of the court.
Goodness caught the ball, took a dribble to dodge a defender and threw up a high hanging floater from the left elbow.
“I just knew we needed to get some type of shot up because we were down and there were only a few seconds remaining,” Goodness said. “So, whether it was Eli or me … just one of us needed to get a shot off.
“It definitely came to me on the fly. It was kind of an awkward position because I had a really big kid on my right. I kind of had to do it on the run. It was kind of just all in the moment.”
The shot went in and the celebration began for Westhill’s thrilling 42-41 victory over Spring Mills.
“We didn’t necessarily have the play for any specific person,” Westhill coach Jon Connelly said. “It was kind of just a we can see what was there.”
This was the Wolf Pack’s third victory in three days on their trip to Florida for the KSA Events Pre-Holiday Basketball Tournament at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center.
Westhill defeated Sulphur (Louisiana) 63-53 on Thursday and Cullman (Alabama) 39-36 on Friday.
The Wolf Pack’s three out-of-state opponents boasted impressive résumés.
But so does Westhill.
They won the Class B state title in 2023 and reached the Class A regional round in 2024. Last year, the Wolf Pack finished with a 23-3 mark before falling to eventual Class A state champion Glens Falls in the regional championship. In total, Westhill has won six state titles in seven trips to the big game.
“We love what we have as far as our skill level and trust and chemistry within our group, but we also wanted to take these guys and get them out of her comfort zone a little bit,” Connelly said.
Sulphur won their 5A league title and finished last season with a 33-8 record.
Cullman sported a 26-5 record in the 2024-25 season and won its 6A league title. It was also just a few years removed from winning the Alabama state title in 2022.
“When you play teams in Central New York, you have some familiarity there,” Connelly said. “But then, when you’re on the road, you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s freeing … to just go play basketball with kind of nothing to lose, but at the same time, these guys show just incredible toughness and grit to show up and play. These teams we played were bigger than us. The kids were taller, they looked physically stronger, but proud of them for sure.”
The Wolf Pack return home with a 9-0 record and will look to recharge the batteries as they prepare to host Jamesville-DeWitt on Dec. 30.
“I mean, we just played four of our toughest games of the season in five days,” Connelly said. “We played ITC, then hopped on a plane the next morning and played these three teams. The kids deserve some rest.”
