WB falls in NBC showdown

By JIM THOMAS

Canton Repository

LOUISVILLE

The West Branch girls basketball team parlayed patience with defense into a share of first place heading into its Northeastern Buckeye Conference showdown at co-leader Louisville on Monday night.

The Leopards would have none of it.

They ran the floor for some easy fastbreak buckets. They got into transition off steals and made the stops out of a new 2-3 zone. And when Louisville was in its halfcourt offense, it pulled up and hit some jumpers too.

With Mackenzie Storlie, Brianna Libertore and Clara Lemmon all scoring in double figures, the Leopards overwhelmed the Warriors 56-37 to avenge their lone league loss and guarantee themselves a share of the NBC title. Louisville (14-4, 12-1) also held West Branch (15-2, 11-2) to its season-low output.

“We don’t want to share it,” Storlie said after scoring 14 points, dishing off seven assists and playing superb defense on top of the zone.

Storlie, Libertore and Molly Brown came to play in their biggest game of their senior season. Storlie keyed everything Louisville did. Libertore was clutch at both ends too, scoring a game-high 15 points to go with a game-best 12 rebounds. And Brown had eight points, including a big 3-pointer at the end of the first half that put the Leopards up 22-15 as their zone limited West Branch to 5 of 25 shooting.

“I thought our zone bothered them,” Louisville coach Garee McCully said after West Branch shot just 10 of 42 (23.8 percent) through three quarters. “We had been practicing it since our Lake game. We went man against West Branch the first time.

“When the zone just started working, we kind of just stayed with it.”

West Branch coach Walt DeShields said his young team lost confidence along with its shooting touch.

“Early in the game we didn’t make some shots we usually make, and I think we lost a little confidence,” DeShields said. “We shot 20 percent, and probably 30 percent from the foul line.”

Louisville outscored the Warriors 9-6 in the third quarter to take its first double-digit lead at 31-21 midway through the period. The Leopards increased their advantage to 37-26 going into the final eight minutes.

West Branch never got closer than nine as it saw its 12-game winning streak snapped. Senior guard Rebeka Zets led the Warriors with nine points and freshman guard Melinda Trimmer had eight.

“We knew we they had two good shooters in Trimmer and Zets,” Storlie said. “We knew we had to stay out there on them.

“We mixed it up with man for a couple minutes, but we like the (2-3) a lot.”