Staff photo / Brian Yauger West Branch freshman Audrey Eaton falls as she puts a shot up during the first half of Saturday's contest.

HOWLAND — West Branch overcame a slow first half to take down Howland, 43-39, in one of the Warriors’ final tests before the postseason begins.

“It’s not bad to have a game like that right before the tournament,” West Branch coach Walt DeShields said. “There’s a reason why we schedule these teams, especially Howland. They’re having a great season, and they’ve got a lot of seniors. This was their last regular season (home game), and we knew that they’d come at us. It was a very physical game. In the first half, they just rebounded the heck out of the ball, and we couldn’t get a board to save our lives. We had to do a lot better job of that.

“We got a good start in the first quarter, but then they built that lead based on just being more aggressive than us. They were getting to the foul line. They were getting downhill on us. They were getting offensive rebounds, putbacks, and we weren’t really doing anything to stop them.”

Without star guard Sophia Gregory for much of the first half due to foul trouble, the Warriors needed all hands on deck — and got them.

Freshmen Ellie Tucker and Audrey Eaton each rose to the occasion when their numbers were called.

Eaton led the team with 11 points. When Eaton took control, it allowed West Branch to pull itself back into the game, trailing just 21-18 at the break.

“We got in foul trouble and stuff, but then there was a point there late in the second quarter our two freshmen stepped up, Ellie Tucker and Audrey Eaton, and they made some plays there and got to the foul line,” DeShields said. “Then we finally decided that we’re going to get to the basket a bit stronger, and that got us into the halftime locker room with more confidence only down three instead of nine or 10.”

With that added confidence, West Branch slowly gained more and more control of the game, eventually taking the lead before the end of the third.

The momentum continued into the fourth as the Warriors got the win to move to 19-2 on the season.

“I just think that we flipped it (in the second half,)” DeShields said. “And the reason why we flipped it, is we were just more aggressive getting to the basket. Now I’d like to see more foul shots made. … But being more aggressive to the rim and limiting them to one shot in the second half, we got a lot more rebounds if you noticed, and didn’t give them second and third opportunities. That built our lead in the second half and then we just had to hold on to beat a good basketball team.”

Even when Gregory was on the floor, the Youngstown State commit was contained well by the Tigers.

It’s not an easy task to limit Gregory, but Howland found a way.

“Court awareness and knowing where she’s at at all times,” Tigers coach Aaron Pounds said about their containment strategy. “She gets going, so someone has got to go over and double her every time. There were a few times here in the fourth quarter, I wish we had doubled sooner, I was screaming like a freaking maniac. The girls didn’t quite respond the way we wanted them to respond, but overall, I can’t complain about their effort.”

The loss snaps a two-game win streak for Howland (15-6), who closes the year with rival Austintown Fitch. The teams squared off at the end of January, so the game is still fresh in Howland’s mind.

With round two looming, the way the Tigers played Saturday is a perfect blueprint.

“If we play like this against Fitch, it’ll be just fine,” Pounds said. “It’s about the defense. I thought we played pretty good defense. We just couldn’t get the ball to go through the net a couple of times. A couple bunnies here and there, and free throws were not where we needed them to be.”

West Branch concludes its regular season at home against Girard.