'Ready to go'; West Branch boys basketball rebounds from first league loss, beats Alliance

ALLIANCE — It would have been fair to wonder how the West Branch boys basketball team would respond to its first Eastern Buckeye Conference loss of the season on Tuesday to Marlington. It didn't take long to find out.

West Branch (13-3, 7-1) used a strong first half to propel itself to a 45-40 win over rival Alliance on the road. West Branch limited the Aviators to just three points in the first quarter and 12 points total in the first half.

"I thought the kids were ready to go tonight," West Branch head coach Scott Loudon said. "You always think about the worst case scenario as a head coach and you always have in the back of your mind, 'Well, what happens if we have another subpar performance tonight? Another loss puts us in a tough spot in the league.' That was not the case. The kids played really well."

West Branch was led by sophomore post Gavin Gregory, who had 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

"He's coming along really well," Loudon said. "If he's not the hardest working kind on the team he's certainly one of them. He's always working to get better. He usually has a size advantage in games but he's starting to do moves in the post that he was not capable of doing six weeks ago."

The 6-foot-6 Gregory is a fixture in the gym which has contributed to his rapid development.

"I try to come in and shoot around as much as I can," Gregory said. "I work on my shot and my post moves a lot. I just try to improve every day."

Cooper Anderson added 10 points, seven rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal for West Branch.

"This was a big win for us to get," Gregory said. "I think it's a big step forward for us. It was nice to show we could respond to adversity after a loss. We came in locked in the day after the setback at practice. We treated this as a job and fortunately we were able to come in and get it done tonight."

West Branch had to survive a big rally by Alliance in the second half. The Aviators managed to take a 37-36 lead in the fourth quarter with 4:16 to play before West Branch responded with a 9-3 run to end the game.

"We expected that," Loudon said. "We came into the locker room and nobody was talking like this game was over. The key for us was not getting down on ourselves when they did take the lead. We didn't panic. We kept attacking. We hit our free throws in the clutch. The kids responded well."

JR Jackson and K'Vaughn Davis led Alliance with 11 points each. Both scored nine points each in the second half.

"You can't have that kind of a start against a team like West Branch," Alliance head coach Chet Harper said. "We had a first quarter where we couldn't throw a rock off the dock and hit water in the ocean. It was like there was a lid on the rim. You have to give them credit. They kept a lid on us early."

The Aviators managed to outscore West Branch 28-25 in the second half.

"I just told the kids at halftime that there was no way we could shoot the ball worse than we did in the first half and to keep playing," Harper said. "We battled. The thing with it is when you are down like that you have to play really hard to catch up and you have to be nearly perfect. We got the lead and made a couple mistakes and we were back down three to five points right away."

It's been a difficult season for Alliance (6-8, 4-3). The Aviators lost senior Brendan Zurbrugg when he decided to enroll at the University of Oklahoma early. The Aviators also are without seniors Marquavian McLendon and Jayce Crockett because of season-ending injuries.

"We're a lot younger than we thought we were going to be coming into the season," Harper said. "These kids continue to work hard and continue to push forward. You saw them in the gym shooting right now after this game. They are working to get better. It was an entertaining game tonight. We were just on the wrong side of it."

Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @chickmanREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: West Branch High School boys basketball rebounds from loss