West Branch captures a return to state
By Steve Wilaj
BARBERTON
Every game, West Branch girls basketball coach Walt DeShields gives his team a goal from the opening-tip — try to get out to a 20-0 lead.
The Warriors know it’s highly unlikely. But as senior point guard Melinda Trimmer said Saturday, “it makes us come out with intensity to try to get a big lead.”
So, when Trimmer and her teammates noticed the scoreboard during a timeout early in the second quarter of Saturday’s Division II regional final matchup with Geneva — and it read 20-0 in favor of West Branch — it was a special moment.
“We were all pretty excited,” Trimmer said, laughing.
And it only got more exciting from there, as West Branch used that huge early lead to dispose of Geneva, 50-30, at Barberton High School in the Division II regional final.
Next up for the Warriors (27-1) is a final four matchup in Columbus with Toledo Rodgers (23-5) on Friday at 3 p.m. in the Jerome Schottenstein Center.
“It’s crazy,” said Trimmer, a Youngstown State commit who paced West Branch with 12 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. “I’m just so excited.
“We worked so hard to get here and I’m just really proud of my team for the way they came out today.”
The Warriors missed a trip to Columbus last year when they fell to Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s in a regional final. They led by seven points late in the third quarter of that contest.
DeShields — who is headed to the state tournament for the first time in his 24 years of coaching — said that loss drove the team all season as it racked up its school-record 27 victories.
“It was a learning lesson that you have to play the whole game and not take things for granted,” he said. “So they worked so hard in the offseason and we also went out and tried to play and scrimmage the best teams in Ohio. We took on all challenges because we knew that was the only way we could get past this game.”
West Branch will be making its first state tournament appearance since 2004 when the Warriors were Division II champions.
West Branch was certainly ready for the stage on Saturday — which included a sold-out arena with a rowdy Warriors crowd.
“The amount of fans that we had here today was incredible,” senior forward Erica Johnson said.
Kaylee Manning scored a team-high 13 points, while Pavin Heath added nine points and Lea Bock scored six. In all, the Warriors shot 44 percent as eight different players scored. It was a much different story than Tuesday’s win against Chagrin Falls in which Trimmer scored 25 of the team’s 36 points.
“I’m so happy for my teammates,” Trimmer said. “That’s what we need is even scoring and everyone did their part tonight.”
The Warriors all did their part defensively, too, as Geneva (18-8), paced by Lindsey Mayle’s 14 points, shot just 26 percent and didn’t score its first bucket until the 5:15 mark of the second quarter.
“Our defense really executed well today,” DeShields said. “Both teams were struggling to score in the first few minutes, but once we made a couple shots here and there, our confidence grew and we were ready to go to the next level.”
West Branch took a 28-10 lead into halftime and never allowed Geneva to get within 14 points in the second half. DeShields added that he was glad to see there was no hangover from Tuesday’s tough win against Chagrin Falls.
“We celebrated for two days after beating Chagrin, but we had to get back to Earth,” he said. “So Thursday we got back to work.”
In turn, now the Warriors have some more celebrating to do.
“There’s a lot of good teams done right now,” DeShields said. “Not too many get to this point, so we’re very excited.”