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Trimmer, West Branch shut down Canfield with solid defense late
Trimmer, West Branch shut down
Canfield with solid defense late
By Ryan Buck
Canfield
The West Branch girls basketball team improved to 2-0 as Melinda Trimmer’s 26 points and two key fourth-quarter 3-pointers from forward Pavin Heath complemented a strong defensive performance in the game’s final minutes for a 58-44 win over Canfield on Wednesday night.
Trimmer scored 15 ppoints in a first half that saw the senior guard lead the Warriors back from an 11-3 first-quarter deficit. West Branch held a 3-point lead with the fourth quarter halfway over and that’s when the Warriors’ defense took over. The Cardinals scored only two points in the final 4:54 and turned the ball over five times.
“I look up at the scoreboard with five or six minutes left and [Canfield has] 42 [points],” said Warriors coach Walt DeShields. “We’d given up a lot of points already and we pride ourselves on 40 points or under.
“They got one bucket after that. So offensively we got going because we sat and guarded and we got stops in the fourth quarter when we needed to.”
Canfield (0-2) did enough to contain Trimmer — a fast, quick-thinking point guard — in the second half after she beat them in every offensive way imaginable in the first.
With the double teams and the traps, however, came wide-open teammates.
“We tried to take the ball out of Trimmer’s hands as much as we could,” said Canfield coach Matt Reel, who was making his home debut in his first season. “But you could tell [West Branch] has been playing together a long time at a high level and it seemed like every time we made a run, they would make a run. Good teams do that.”
After Erin Risner’s basket brought Canfield within three points with seven minutes to play, Heath drilled a jumper from the left corner to put her team ahead 43-37. Risner answered only to see Trimmer race back down-court to find Heath open in the same spot.
The senior’s triple fell true once more and West Branch led 46-39 with 5:30 to play.
“Big players step up in big situations and make some big shots,” said DeShields, whose team was one win away from a spot in the Division II state final four last season.
Trimmer signed a letter-of-intent with Youngstown State last month.
“[Trimmer’s] been our leading scorer, but the thing that makes her special are her assists,” DeShields said. “She recognizes double teams and she’s a student of the game. She’s a 4.0 student in the classroom and she’s really a 4.0 on the basketball court.”
The Warriors knocked down eight of 14 free throws in the final quarter.
Fans were robbed of a potential matchup of two of the area’s best as an opening night ankle injury to Canfield standout Rachel Tinkey sidelined the Cardinals’ point guard.
“Everybody talks about the way she can shoot the ball and that’s great, but what we really miss is having a three-year player out there,” Reel said. “She’s so smart and such a competitor and you can’t replace someone with all that experience.”
The Warriors made 23 of 33 free throws while Canfield was five of 15. Risner led Canfield with 14 points and guard Ashley Kaleel made three 3-pointers to finish with nine.