Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Members of West Branch share a hug following their defeat to Laurel.

MACEDONIA — With her team trailing and in need of a spark, West Branch senior Sophia Gregory put her team on her back in the second half on Saturday.

Despite Gregory finishing with 24 points, it wasn’t enough, as the Warriors fell to Shaker Heights Laurel 51-39 in the Division II, Northeast 2 district final.

“She’s our playmaker, so the more you can get the ball in her hands, the better your team’s going to be,” Warriors head coach Walt DeShields said. “When you’ve got a playmaker like that, you’ve got to get them the ball. Sophie never came off the floor — 32 minutes, never came out. I just can’t say enough about her effort for our team.”

After West Branch ran out to a 7-2 lead to open the game thanks to some early baskets in the post from Livvie Showalter, Laurel’s super sophomore Saniyah Hall, who has averaged 26.4 points per game this season, began to take over.

Hall scored 16 of her game-high 29 points in the first half, as the Gators built a 26-20 lead at halftime.

“She’s a really good player — she does it all,” DeShields said about Hall. “She can rebound, she can drive to the basket, pull up, she can hit the three, step back — so it’s a really difficult matchup for anybody.”

With the Warriors struggling to score offensively, West Branch turned to its own star coming out after halftime.

Gregory scored 17 of her 24 points in the second half and almost all of the Warriors’ 19 second-half points.

“I told Sophie, ‘You can play with anybody,'” DeShields said. “You saw it right there and I hope that gives her confidence at Youngstown State.”

Coming in, the Warriors were giving up just 28.2 points per game this season, so West Branch’s normally stout defense did what it could to defend the Gators and Hall’s prolific scoring.

But Laurel still managed to score 51 points on 43.2% shooting thanks to Hall’s efforts.

The Warriors tried trapping, playing zone and even attempted different matchups in their man defense, before eventually sticking with Gregory on Hall for most of the second half.

“We were trying to double her there in the second half a little bit to make her get rid of the ball,” DeShields said. “I thought we did a much better job in the second half because she didn’t score as much. But it still exerts a lot of energy defensively to do that, so some of our shots maybe fell short that we normally make. (Hall’s) got big things ahead of her. I thought Sophie did a great job attacking her on offense and getting her in foul trouble. Carter Shepherd did a great job guarding her as well, but she’s going to get her points.”

Putting up just six points, West Branch struggled to score in the second quarter, and the Warriors were never quite able to dig themselves out of the hole after that.

West Branch cut the lead to nine late in the second half, but over the final 4:30, the Gators mostly held the ball and tried to drain out the clock till the Warriors were forced to start fouling. During those final few minutes, West Branch only possessed the ball for about 30 total seconds.

To go with Gregory’s 24 points, Showalter finished with nine points, while Chloe Dennison and Audrey Eaton each hit a three for the Warriors. West Branch shot 14-for-34 (41.2%) from the floor.

The loss marked the end of Gregory, Showalter, Dennison, Brynn Smith and Mikalyn Woods’ playing careers for the Warriors.

“That makes it harder to end it because you’re never going to be the same,” DeShields said. “Our five seniors, they’re going to go off and head to college and do great things, whether it’s playing sports, owning a business, being a great mother — we’re hoping we taught them some things about life and the ups and downs you can have through that.

“They brought great leadership and they’re a great group and they’re going to be hard to replace with a lot of big shoes to fill for next season. I’ve known a lot of them since they were ‘wee’ little, and it’s hard to let them go. But you have to, and you have to hope that what you did made an impact on their lives.”

After being part of a district title-winning team as sophomores, that group of seniors had to overcome adversity during an injury-maligned season last year, before bouncing back with a 23-3 record and a district runner-up finish this season.

“They worked extremely hard in this game and didn’t give up. That’s something to be proud of,” DeShields said. “Don’t let one game define you. We’ve had a lot of big-time wins and some tough losses, but family comes first. It just comes down to friendships more than wins and losses, it comes down to those relationships and those memories. It was a joy to go in the gym with these girls, and I looked forward to it every single day.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him/her on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.