Olmsted Falls defense leads team to 42-21 win over West Branch
PLAIN TOWNSHIP — West Branch girls’ basketball coach Walt DeShields traditionally loves to load up the Warriors’ schedule with state powers — with the thinking being it will make his team stronger for a long postseason run.
Well, the Warriors certainly tangled with one in Olmsted Falls here Thursday in the Wishes Can Happen Holiday Tournament, hosted by GlenOak High School.
Olmsted Falls, which played in the Division I state championship game last season and returned three starters from that team, controlled the tempo from the outset in rolling to a 42-21 win over the Warriors.
“You want to play great competition,” said DeShields. “That’s the reason why we come to these holiday tournaments and why we play a schedule with many D1 schools. If they learn from that and get better from that, that’s what you want as a coach. Being uncomfortable sometimes is a good thing to make your team better, and I think this loss could go a long way for us as the season goes on.”
“I’m just happy that we got a great defensive effort against a really great, well-coached basketball team (in West Branch),” said Olmsted Falls head coach Jordan Eaton. “They had an off-day and that happens sometimes, but they’re really good and I have a lot of respect for them as coaches and for their program overall.”
‘I thought we had a really slow start offensively’
West Branch, which entered the game undefeated at 9-0 and ranked No. 1 in the latest mahoningmatters.com Super Seven poll, could never settle into an offensive rhythm against the quicker Bulldogs. The Warriors fell behind early and things snowballed on them.
“I thought we had a really slow start offensively,” noted DeShields. “We missed some shots we normally make and we had open shots, we had some layups and some threes that we normally make, but I thought we were rushing too much.”
The athletic and quicker Olmsted Falls’ squad forced numerous turnovers out of the taller Warriors. In fact, West Branch ended with as many turnovers (21) as it did points in the game.
“Our girls really enjoy defense and they work at it every day,” commented Eaton, whose Bulldogs knocked off tradition-rich Pickerington Central 58-53 in the state semifinals last season but lost to Cincinnati Princeton 69-51 in the Division I state championship game. “I was really proud of them. We love to win a game when we don’t shoot it great, and that’s kind of what happened.”
After the game was tied 6-6 following a layup by West Branch senior standout Sophia Gregory at the 4:10 mark of the first period, Olmsted Falls went on a 10-0 run to close out the quarter for a 16-6 lead and never looked back.
“I thought even in the first quarter with us down 16-6, if we make a few of those (shots), it’s a different mindset,” observed DeShields.
The Bulldogs (6-2) led 28-12 at halftime and 35-19 after three quarters.
Sophia Gregory led West Branch with 10 points
West Branch had one player reach double figures in the game as Sophia Gregory, a Youngstown State commit, led the Warriors with 10 points in the contest. Maddie Showalter, a senior, added six points.
West Branch only made one perimeter shot in the game and missed several wide open layups throughout the contest which put them in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
Olmsted Falls was led by its standout senior guard Danielle Cameron who took game scoring honors with 19 points.
“They (the Bulldogs) are a good basketball team, they have three returning starters with some experience and some girls that came off the bench last year in that tournament run (to state),” said DeShields, “and any time you get that, you’ve got a lot of confidence and you could see that coming in.”
West Branch to face another challenge in Canfield on Saturday
West Branch, which faces a challenging week schedule-wise, will go up against another quick, aggressive defensive team Saturday evening when the Warriors host Canfield, a D2 regional finalist from last season. The junior varsity game will start at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow.
“We’ve got to turn right around on Saturday and play Canfield, which is a good basketball team and we know that, coming into our place,” said DeShields. “It should be a great atmosphere for us. Our girls just have to pick their chins up right now and keep working and getting better every game and playing hard for each other.”
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