Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Allowing 16 points in a quarter doesn’t set off alarms with most coaches.

For someone that emphasizes defense like West Branch coach Jarod Tylee a 16-point quarter is enough to start making changes.

A little change proved to be just what the Bears needed on Monday.

West Branch moved from its traditional man-to-man defense to a 3-2 zone and closed the first half on a 16-0 run to pull away for a 61-44 win over Solon in a non-conference matchup.

“They were beating us pretty good off the dribble, creating things for themselves and we couldn’t stop them,” Tylee said. “We went to a defense that we haven’t even practiced for a half hour all year and I thought our kids actually did pretty well with it.”

Class 2A fifth-ranked West Branch (5-2) held Solon scoreless for a span of nearly 10 minutes in the second and third quarters while turning a three-point lead into a 27-point cushion.

Junior guards Sasha Koenig and Taya Young each had nine of their 14 points during a 24-0 West Branch spurt that gave the Bears a 47-20 lead midway through the third quarter.

“We are kind of a slow starting team if seems like,” Koenig said. “I think after that first quarter there was a little but chewing and we kind of woke up a little bit.”

After allowing 16 points in the opening six and a half minutes of the game West Branch switched to a 3-2 zone and immediately clamped down defensively.

Solon sophomore Makinley Levin hit five consecutive shots while scoring the first 13 points of the game for Solon.

The Spartans led 16-13 after a Jada Buffington 3-pointer with 1:44 left in the opening quarter and trailed just 23-20 after Buffington converted a layup with 5:48 left in the opening half.

Solon wouldn’t score again in the opening half.

“We thought they would come out the second quarter and go to a zone and they stretched it out and it was a tough zone,” Solon coach Jamie Smith said. “It took us a little while to regroup and they made a nice run on us.”

West Branch force five Solon turnovers in the final five minutes of the opening half while closing the quarter on a 16-0 run.

Koening had a pair of 3-pointers to ignite the run and Young scored the final nine points of the half as West Branch took a 39-20 lead into intermission.

“We switched it up a little bit,” Young said. “We were really aggressive in the 3-2 for the first time playing it and not really working on it and I think that helped us a lot.”

The 16-point quarter for Solon was the third consecutive quarter an opponent had scored at least 16 points against the Bears.

In its first five games West Branch allowed 14 or more points in a quarter just one time and that came in the first quarter of the season.

“We aren’t really used to giving up points like that,” Young said. “The coaches told us we were going to switch some things up and were open to it and it worked great.”

West Branch put the game away with eight straight points to open the third quarter.

Koenig and Young combined for 28 points while four other Bears had at least six.

Kaiya Luneckas had eight points and 12 rebounds while Taylor Thein, Mackenzie Heise and Rylan Druecker all had six points.

“We weren’t engaged on defense to start the game and we need to be, after that I thought we were pretty good,” Tylee said. “That’s kind of been our thing all year is we need to put four quarters together. We put two or three quarters together but we need to put that fourth quarter together.”

Levin finished with a game-high 18 points to lead Solon which closed the game by outscoring West Branch 9-7 in the fourth quarter.

Kaia Holtkamp added eight points and Ellyse Holubar had 12 rebounds for Solon.

“I thought the first quarter I don’t think in two years we’ve played any better basketball,” Smith said. “No one likes to lose, that’s one of the top five teams in the state, and we kept playing and I couldn’t be prouder of this team.”

West Branch            17  22  15  7  –  61

Solon                          16   4   15  9  –  44

West Branch (61) – Mackenzie Heise 3-7 0-0 6, Lexie Peak 1-4 0-0 3, Delanie Luneckas 2-3 0-1 4, Sasha Koenig 5-12 1-2 14, Rylan Druecker 1-4 3-4 6, Kaiya Luneckas 3-6 2-5 8, Taylor Thein 2-4 1-1 6, Taya Young 6-14 1-3 14, Team 23-54 8-16 61.

Solon (44) – Claire LaDage 1-2 0-0 2, Ava Stebral 1-4 0-0 3, Kaia Holtkamp 4-17 0-0 8, Makinley Levin 7-13 0-3 18, Jenna LaDage 1-9 0-1 2, Jada Buffington 2-5 0-1 5, Hilary Wilson 1-4 2-2 4, Ellyse Holubar 1-3 0-2 2, Team 18-57 2-9 44.

3-point field goals – WB 7-19 (Peak 1-4, Koenig 3-6, Druecker 1-2, Thein 1-2, Young 1-5), SOL 6-30 (Stebral 1-2, Holtkamp 0-8, Levin 4-8, J. LaDage 0-5, Buffington 1-4, Wilson 0-3). Rebounds – WB 43 (K. Luneckas 12), SOL 37 (Holubar 12). Turnovers – WB 16, SOL 17. Total fouls – WB 14, SOL 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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