Staff photo / Dan Hiner. West Branch’s Hallie Vie Burton (23) pulls up for a shot while Warren JFK’s Addy Odillie (15) tries to get a hand in her face during the second half of a game at West Branch High School on Wednesday.

BELOIT — The West Branch girls basketball team doesn’t have one go-to scorer this season. The team doesn’t have a Melinda Trimmer or Sophia Gregory to help carry the load like it has in years past.

Instead, this year’s team has won by spreading the responsibility around, and Wednesday was no different.

West Branch had 10 girls score as the Warriors beat Warren JFK 55-21 at West Branch High School.

Mati Hawk led the Warriors with 10 points and was the team’s lone double-digit scorer. Ellie Tucker and Carter Shepherd each scored eight points, while Audrey Eaton added seven points and Tallie Muniz chipped in six.

“We went up to Canfield the other day and lost, and we’ve really looked good the last two games, especially offensively,” West Branch head coach Walt DeShields said.

West Branch (18-2) shut down the Eagles in the first quarter. The Warriors jumped out to a 13-4 lead, and that grew to a 31-14 advantage by halftime.

The Warriors continued to put pressure on JFK (13-6) in the third. And eventually, DeShields put in his reserves with 5:34 to play. A layup by Cailyn Fritz with 3:06 remaining put West Branch up 55-20 and triggered the running clock.

“Defensively, I think we did a great job tonight, making it tough for them to score,” DeShields said. “I thought, second half, we rebounded the ball much better. First half, they were getting some offensive rebounds, second half they didn’t get very many at all, so it starts there.”

The Eagles have now lost three in a row after Wednesday’s game. Their previous two losses in the skid came to Rootstown and Cleveland Central Catholic.

Kennedy is down a couple players, including point guard Didi Ryan, who tore her ACL.

Wednesday’s game was supposed to be a test for JFK heading into the playoffs. Instead, head coach Marc Morgan was trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t.

“I basically said when we got to this point, ‘these are scrimmages getting ready for the tournament,'” Morgan said. “These are scrimmages to see what we can do without our point guard.”

Without Ryan, Gianna Pompelia had to shoulder the scoring responsibilities for the Eagles. She led the team with 16 points.

Morgan said he’s going to take more of an educational approach for the rest of the regular season. At halftime, he wanted open dialog with his players to find out what they were comfortable running and what they were seeing on the court.

“When we get into playing teams in our division, hopefully this has paid off. That’s what I just said to them in (the locker room),” Morgan said. “Practices have been good, it’s just a matter of who can do what?”

The last week of the regular season will also be an evaluation period for DeShields.

He said his Warriors have shown resilience over the course of the year. When they get knocked down, they’ve gotten back up.

West Branch’s first loss of the year came to Fitch, and the Warriors responded with a 10-game winning streak. Now, DeShields’ team is getting back on track with back-to-back wins after a loss to Canfield, and it’s been a different girl leading the team every night.

“Offensively, we talked a lot about mindset,” DeShields said. “We had girls that weren’t even looking to score in Canfield. I said, ‘We can’t play like that.’ Even if you get three or four points, it all adds up. I think the last two games, we’ve corrected that. It’s nice seeing our players build that confidence, because we’re really a young team.”