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West Branch runs through Niles to begin tournament run
Niles vs West Branch
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BELOIT
The top-seeded West Branch girls basketball team needed a bit of a wake-up call after going more than a week without competition.
Fortunately for head coach Walt DeShields, it came two days before his team took the court for their Division II tournament opener on Monday. The district’s second seed, Lakeview, was shown an early exit over the weekend, providing the Warriors all the incentive they needed to not look past their first round opponent, Niles.
“When the No. 2 seed gets upset on Saturday, and all our girls know it, that’s a wake-up call as far as ‘You better get focused or it can happen to you,’” DeShields said.
“I think they knew that, but by seeing that, it helped us as a staff get them a little bit more focused on what our game plan was tonight.”
And the Warriors (22-1) game plan was pressure, pressure and more pressure. It took until the second quarter for West Branch to overwhelm Niles on its way to a 76-26 win over the Red Dragons.
“We pushed the ball up the floor really well and we shared it tonight,” Warriors senior Melinda Trimmer said.
“Each girl can find the open player and we all have confidence to knock down a shot. It was a total team effort.”
Trimmer found just about everyone — including the front row a couple times in the first quarter before settling down — dishing out a team-high 10 assists. The point guard, who’s committed to Youngstown State, also scored 11 of her 17 points in a dominating second quarter performance.
“I feel we definitely had some tournament jitters,” Trimmer said. “Not playing in while, we were a little excited — I definitely felt a little rusty — but we got it out of our system.”
Kaylee Manning was on the receiving end of a number of Trimmer’s passes, even when she didn’t think there was an opening. Benefiting from the Warriors turning defense into offense. Manning led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and recorded eight steals.
“Every time she has it, she’s good at seeing the floor,” Manning said of her point guard.
“I mean there were a couple that kind of surprised me, but yeah, sometimes [she can], because you never know.”
After a promising first quarter, the Red Dragons (6-17) struggled to get the ball past half court against the Warriors’ frantic press. Niles had 23 turnovers — 10 of those coming in the second quarter when they were out-scored 34-8.
“A lot of our offense is our defense,” DeShields said. “When we’re playing really good defense and getting some turnovers, we’ve got some girls who can run the floor pretty well — and Melinda can find them.”
Ashley Cline led the Red Dragons with seven points, while Kia Allen had nine rebounds.
Pavin Heath had 12 points and six rebounds for the Warriors, who used their whole bench in the second half. That depth could be tested later on in the tournament, but it’s going to take a special performance to derail this train in district play.