On Monday, January 30th, the West Branch Girls’ Basketball team faced off against the Glendale Lady Vikings in a home game. The Lady Warriors took a tough loss with an ending score of 45-29. The game was the second time the two teams met this year, the first game ending with Glendale pulling out a win in the fourth quarter.
The game started with the Lady Vikings holding a five-point lead and ending the first quarter with a 12-7 score. Lily Williams added to the score for the Lady Warriors by making a three-point shot. Although in the second quarter, the Warriors scored ten points to the Lady Vikings’ nine points. A West Branch junior, Jenna Mertz, scored five second-quarter points for the Lady Warriors. But, the Lady Vikings continued with the lead entering halftime with a score of 21-17. The girls entered halftime with Glendale holding a four-point lead over West Branch.
In the third quarter, the Vikings scored seven more points while the Warriors only scored six more points taking the score to 28-23 entering the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Vikings took a significant lead by scoring 17 more as the Lady Warriors scored six more points resulting in a final score of 45-29.
Jenna Mertz led the team in points scored with 12 total, and Sarah Guglielmi was next in line with eight points. Jenna Mertz also added eight rebounds and four assists to her stats for the night. Guglielmi, Mertz, and Lily Williams all helped their team by making three-point shots throughout the game. West Branch head coach Justin Koleno said, “The girls know that’s the type of team we need to beat to be successful in the playoff. We are playing well enough through stretches, but you have to put together 4 quarters of good basketball to beat good teams. The early lead allowed Glendale to play the way they like to play.”
This hard loss took the Lady Warriors’ record to 12-6 overall, 5-6 in the ICC, and 4-2 in the MVL. The West Branch Lady Warrior Basketball team will continue their season on Thursday, February 2nd, in an away game against Bellwood-Antis.
