The Lady Warriors built a big first half lead and withstood and aggressive onslaught in the second half to earn a hard fought 45-31 victory at Carrollton Wednesday night clinching the teams second straight EBC Basketball Championship. The girls move to 15-1 on the season and are 9-0 in the EBC.
West Branch jumped out to an early 10-0 lead thanks to quick 3's by
Ellie Tucker and
Audrey Eaton to open the game. Relentless defensive pressure in the half court stifled Carrollton offensive opportunities as West Branch gave up only two first quarter points.
The second half was more of the same as West Branch continued to put pressure on Carrollton and after a three point play by
Presley Egli, West Branch led 16-3 two minutes into the second quarter.
West Branch would go into the break leading 20-5 only two quarters away from securing the championship.
In the second half Carrollton pick up the aggressive play as they sensed the championship was falling out of reach. The two teams battled for the final two quarters but for every small run that Carrollton would make West Branch would answer never allowing the Black and White Warriors to close the gap below ten points.
The Warriors again found production from the entire team on both ends of the court. Tucker led the way with 12 points and Eaton added eight. Egli chipped in seven points while
Tallie Muniz added six points in the paint.
Mati Hawk finished with five points and
Carter Shepherd with four.
Alli Kanagy had a bucket and
Hallie Vie Burton added a foul shot to round out the scoring.