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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
WILLIAMSBURG -- Williamsburg gave West Branch, the current top seed in the District 6 Class 2A boys basketball playoff rankings, all it could handle Tuesday night.
The Warriors came out on top, 76-68, with some big shots by Owen Koleno down the stretch, but the Blue Pirates left their gym with plenty of positives to build on heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
Williamsburg senior Rowan Gorsuch scored 19 points and had 15 rebounds, but he got plenty of help from Jesse Brumbaugh, who drilled seven 3-pointers to finish with 21 points.
"We're working as a team more and starting to develop," Gorsuch said. "It's definitely huge when he steps out and shoots those 3-pointers. I can work the inside, but we have been lacking someone stepping up on the outside, and he's been stepping up there."
The Blue Pirates have lost just three games this year, two to West Branch and once to Bellwood-Antis, and are in line for one of the higher seeds in the District 6 Class 1A field.
"We're close to where we need to be," Williamsburg coach Jeff Detwiler said. "We're going to build on this."
If Williamsburg gets more performances like the one from Brumbaugh on Tuesday, it will go a long way on the Pirates reaching their full potential.
"Usually when I'm saying things to Jesse, it's me telling him to shoot more," Detwiler said. "He's a shooter, and we want him to shoot more often. He proved that tonight, and hopefully he can continue to do that the rest of the season."
Though Williamsburg (10-3) may have come away with a moral victory, West Branch's victory on the scoreboard was certainly important for the Warriors, who took a two-game lead and the tiebreaker over the Blue Pirates on their side of the Inter-County Conference.
Koleno, who limped off the court with 23.1 seconds to play, finished with 31 points for West Branch and scored seven straight points in the final 3:36 to bring the Warriors from two points down to five points ahead.
"That's who Owen is," West Branch coach Danny Clark said. "When we need a bucket, a rebound or anything really, he's going to come up big for us. He's been doing that for two or three years. I'm proud of him and how we responded after halftime. It was a little adversity for us. We haven't been down much all year."
Down the stretch, West Branch (15-1) had some trouble closing out the game from the free-throw line and missed six of eight shots at one point, but Lukas Colton came down with two offensive rebounds off missed free throws to conserve a four-point lead.
"Lukas had two big rebounds off those free throws," Clark said. "Those got us extra possessions, and that was huge."
Isaac Tiracorda scored 12 points, and Joel Evans and Dylan McGonigal each added 11 points for West Branch, many of those coming on fastbreak layups off made Williamsburg baskets.
"That's exactly what we want to do," Clark said. "In the first half, we didn't get to do that as much as we wanted to. In the second half, we did it more. When they score, we want a four-on-three or at least four-on four going back every single time."
Williamsburg, which also got 11 points from Ethan Reffner and 10 points from Logan Brantner, led by six at halftime and by two after Gorsuch's floater with 3:45 to play. The scoring was down from the first meeting, a 97-81 West Branch win on Dec. 13.
"We know they like to get it out and run, but our plan was to get a good shot every possession," Detwiler said. "For most of the possessions, we got some pretty good shots. Some guys stepped up and knocked down some outside shots for us tonight. We just didn't finish it off."
WEST BRANCH (76): Colton 3 1-2 8, Evans 5 1-7 11, Z. McGonigal 1 0-0 3, Koleno 11 4-5 31, Tiracorda 5 2-2 12, E. Emigh 0 0-0 0, N. Emigh 0 0-0 0, D. McGonigal 2 6-7 11. Totals -- 27 14-23 76.
WILLIAMSBURG (68): Gorsuch 8 3-4 19, Brumbaugh 7 0-0 21, Brantner 4 2-4 10, Isenberg 1 0-0 3, Reffner 4 3-3 11, Zehner 2 0-0 4. Totals -- 26 8-11 68.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
West Branch 17 11 24 24 -- 76
Williamsburg 15 19 16 18 -- 68
3-point goals: West Branch 8 (Koleno 5, Colton, Z. McGonigal, D. McGonigal); Williamsburg 8 (Brumbaugh 7, Isenberg).
Records: West Branch (15-1); Williamsburg (10-3).
Officials: Derrick Soellner, Jim Cushion, Keith Redfoot.
JV: West Branch, 35-24. High scorers--Easton Emigh, WB, 15; Evan Zehner, W, 10.