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Toledo Rogers shuts down West Branch girls
COLUMBUS
The Toledo Rogers Rams weren’t going to allow Melinda Trimmer to beat them.
Ohio’s Division II Co-Player of the Year was face-guarded, elbowed, grabbed and eventually broken, as the Rams pushed West Branch out of the state tournament Friday afternoon in Columbus. The Warriors’ dream season came to an end with a 51-37 loss in a Division II state semifinal at Value City Arena.
West Branch (27-2) fell behind Rogers early and couldn’t string together enough shots to make a run at the bigger, stronger Rams. It was their defensive pressure and rebounding that eventually became too much for the Warriors to handle.
“They’re a big strong team and they got a lot of offensive rebounds and loose balls,” said West Branch head coach Walt DeShields. “With their talent, that made it awful tough for us to come back from that kind of deficit.”
Rogers (24-5) scored the first 11 points of the game and never looked back. Former Ursuline High standout Tanaya Beacham scored nine of her 14 points in the opening quarter, giving the Rams a jump-start without their co-player of the year, Akienreh Johnson, who was out with a torn ACL.
From there, sophomore point guard Breylnn Hampton-Bey made it her game.
“Defense wins games,” said Rogers head coach Lamar Smith. “We had a great game plan to take their best player out of the game and Breylnn, Myia McLeod and Lauren [Smith] came in and did a great job frustrating her. Defense won this tonight.”
Hampton-Bey, who also scored 16 points, was in the back pocket of Trimmer from end line to end line the entire game. The only time the 5-foot-7 guard wasn’t all over the Warriors’ leading scorer was when Trimmer had to go to the bench for a few minutes in the first quarter after catching an elbow to the jaw.
The Rams threw different defensive looks at the Warriors, including an effective box-and-one.
“The confidence comes from just trying to win the game as a team and bringing what I have to the court,” Hampton-Bey said. “I’d never seen [Trimmer] play so I was just doing the best I could.”
Trimmer was held to five points and five assists, but perhaps most uncharacteristic was her six turnovers. Hampton-Bey finished with seven steals, with most coming at Trimmer’s expense.
The Warriors had a difficult afternoon shooting the ball as well. They were 10-of-46 from the floor and just 5-of-22 from the 3-point line. West Branch hit just one of its first 10 shots from behind the arc. Junior Kaylee Manning scored six of her 11 points at the foul line with all of her scoring coming in the second half.
“There were some opportunities that we had and Melinda did a great job of finding the open girl in the lane or a kick-out,” DeShields said. “If we make some of those shots, the game could’ve been a little different.”
Instead, the Warriors’ senior class is faced with the end of a historic run. Trimmer, Pavin Heath and fellow seniors Erica Johnson and Lea Bock finished with 94 wins in 107 games. But the last loss was tough to take.
“This tournament run will never be forgotten,” Trimmer said. “When I think about basketball, this is what I think about — and this team — and how much they mean to me.
“We’ll definitely never forget this.”
Rogers will play Kettering Archbishop Alter in the state final today at 5:15 p.m.