BELOIT — It was a night of mixed emotions for the West Branch boys’ basketball team in its Northeastern Buckeye Conference finale against Louisville in the West Branch Fieldhouse Friday night. On a big, positive note, West Branch senior T.J. DeShields became the school’s all-time leading scorer.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Warriors’ defense had an off night and cat-quick NBC champion Louisville took full advantage, posting a 71-54 win over the Warriors.

DeShields became the school’s all-time scoring leader when he hit a reverse layup with 3:26 left in the second quarter. It gave him 1,083 points at the time as he surpassed former record holder Scott Loudon (a 1992 WB grad and current Minerva assistant basketball coach) who tallied 1,082 points in his Warrior career.

“It (the record) feels pretty good, it wouldn’t be possible without hard work,” said DeShields. “It helps to have the constant pushing from the coaching staff and my teammates to improve throughout my career. It’s a pretty big honor.”

The game was halted with 3:00 remaining before half and DeShields was presented a game ball which he gave to his parents, Walt and Penny DeShields, sitting in the stands.

“T.J has been here since the first day I came,” praised West Branch head coach Randy Montgomery, “and we went through some growing painsand we found out who was with us and who was against us, and he was there from Day 1, so I’m very happy for him that he’s been able to do this. We’re going to miss him when he’s done, but he’s not done yet.”

DeShields went on to finish with a team-high 21 points and continued to add to his ongoing record which now stands at 1,092 points.

“It’s an honor to be with the top guys on the list of the record board, and I hope I can be the inspiration for younger kids,” added DeShields.

Complementing DeShields in the scoring column were junior Brandon Zuchowski with 13 points and sophomore point guard Reese Leone with 10 markers.

With the loss, West Branch is now 16-6 and finished the NBC season 8-6, while Louisville improved to 16-6 and finished 12-2 in the NBC for the outright league crown in its final season in the league.

“I’m really happy with how we played,” said Louisville head coach Tom Siegfried. “I think they (West Branch) are a great program and they’re going to be a team upcoming the next couple years. I think what you saw are some guys who are more experienced over some guys who are coming.”

West Branch held just one lead in the game at 3-0 after Zuchowski hit a short hoop and later added a free throw at the 6:51 mark of the first period.

But the flow of the game quickly changed as Louisville went on to outscore the Warriors 18-9 in the quarter to lead 18-12 after one period.

The Leopards, who played 12 players, never looked back while taking quarter-stop leads of 40-28 at halftime and 49-38 after three while burning the Warriors’ defense on many occasions with uncontested layups.

“We let them get around us several times early,” said Montgomery. “We worked on that (in practice) just guarding on defense, man-to-man, and they got by us a few times and made some buckets. Normally we guard more efficiently.”

Siegfried praised his team’s swarming defensive effort against the Warriors.

“We wanted to get the ball out of Leone’s hands and that’s a complement to him because he’s a very good player and he hurt us at our place (a three-point LHS win a week ago),” said Siegfried, “and I thought DeShields did a good job of picking the pace. It’s not easy to play when you’re about to break the all-time scoring record, so kudos to him, he’s a heck of a player.”

The Leopards were also adept from long range, hitting eight of 16 beyond the arc, led by Colton Jones who led LHS with 20 points, including five treys, and Derek Zeller who finished with 18 points, including a trio of treys. Brandon Wahl (15 points) and Cam King (14 markers) rounded out the Leopards’ well-balanced scoring attack.

“I just didn’t think it was our night, we just weren’t as in sync as we’ve been the last eight weeks, since before Christmas, really,” said Montgomery. “We just didn’t seem to click tonight.”

Louisville rolled to a 59-40 win in the junior varsity game.

Notes

¯West Branch, the No. 3 seed, will play the winner of the Struthers-Ravenna game in a sectional final next Friday night in Beloit at 7 p.m.

“I told the guys, we’re proud of them — 16 wins in the regular season, and now that book is closed, and now it’s time to move to the next one in the district, which is very competitive but it’s doable,” said Montgomery.

Louisville will play the winner of Norton-Field in a D2 sectional final next Friday night at 7 at LHS.

LOUISVILLE: 18-22-09-22–71

WEST BRANCH: 12-16-10-16–54

LOUISVILLE SCORING: Travis Jones 0-0-0, Davis Burick 1-0-2, Scott Gronow 0-0-0, Max Hartline 0-0-0, Brandon Wahl 5-2-15, Jimmy Wright 0-0-0, Jared Mathie 0-0-0, Derek Zeller 7-1-18, Ryan Pukys 0-0-0, Bryce Zuppe 1-0-2, Cam King 5-4-14, Colton Jones 7-1-20, Cory Noble 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 26-8-10 71

WEST BRANCH SCORING: Nick Everett 1-1-3, Nick Scarpitti 2-0-6, Reese Leone 3-2-10, Nick Pidgeon 0-0-0, T.J. DeShields 9-3-21, Brandon Zuchowski 5-3-13, Michael Boosz 1-0-3. TEAM TOTALS: 21-9-15 54

Three-point goals: Louisville 8 (Colton Jones 5, Derek Zeller 3), West Branch 5 (Nick Scarpitti 2, Reese Leone 2, Michael Boosz 1).