AUSTINTOWN — If defense wins championships, the West Branch girls basketball team has a chance to prove that Saturday evening at Fitch High School. The top-seeded Warriors face second-seeded Poland that night at 7 in a Division II district championship game.

West Branch reached the title game by suffocating the fourth-seeded Salem Quakers, 47-19, Wednesday night at Fitch. The Warriors, 21-3, limited the Quakers to a season-low in scoring on just six field goals and 23 percent shooting from the field. They also forced the Quakers into committing 21 turnovers.

“We’re peaking defensively right now,” Warrior coach Walt DeShields said. “To hold Ravenna to five points last week and Salem to 19. I would have never thought that.

“These girls are sitting down and talking, they are in the gaps, they’re rebounding the ball, they’re doing all the right things defensively. It’s just amazing how we are playing defense right now.”

West Branch and Poland are two of 10 area girls teams playing in six district title games tonight and-or Saturday. All are vying for berths in regional tournament — Sweet 16 — games next week.

Top-seeded Warren G. Harding faces No. 2 Stow-Munroe Falls tonight at 7 at Ravenna High School in a Division I district title game.

On Saturday, besides the Division II game at Austintown, there are two Division III games and two Division IV contests. In D-III, No. 1 Champion and No. 2 Garfield meet at Lakeview at 1 p.m., and at 7 at Struthers, the matchup is No. 2 South Range against No. 4 Crestview. The D-IV title games are both at 4 p.m. At Mineral Ridge the matchup is No. 1 McDonald against No. 2 Western Reserve, and at Grand Valley it is No. 4 Bristol against No. 2 Cornerstone Christian.

West Branch took charge of its win over Salem right from the opening tip as the Warriors raced out to an 11-2 lead at the 4:55 mark of the first quarter when Peyton Alazaus connected. They went on to hold a 16-6 advantage at the end of the period.

“The way that we prepared and came in with so much energy, I kind of had a feeling that we would kind of dominate,” West Branch’s Hannah Ridgway said. “It was awesome to be able to beat our rivals for the third time.”

The Quakers finish the season with a 14-10 record.

“They set the tone from the beginning, just super aggressive,” Quakers coach Vince Nittoli said. “Big stage, big lights, big crowd and they came out and, like a heavyweight fight, they hit us first. And we didn’t respond very well.”

The Warriors continued to pull away in the second quarter as they started the frame with a 10-0 run. They held a commanding 29-12 lead at the intermission.

DeShields applauded his bench players.

“We needed our bench tonight,” he said. “We got into a little bit of foul trouble and I wanted to use our bench early. They did a great job.

“They did what they needed to do. Whether it was handling the ball, playing defense, get a rebound or making a shot. They all did their job. We showed our depth tonight.”

The Warriors surrendered only seven points in the second half while trying to spread the court to eat clock. They held a 38-15 lead at the end of the third quarter.

“This is our eighth district championship game here at Fitch in the last 10 years,” DeShields said. “We love playing here, we always have. We call it our home away from home because we have played so many games here. We like playing here.”