In sports, it’s what someone leaves behind once their time with a team has concluded.

Looking back, the 2019-2020 season has been a campaign that’ll stand out in the West Branch boys basketball history books with the regular season winding down and playoffs looming.

The Warriors recently won the Eastern Buckeye Conference, the program’s first outright league title since 1991, and Tuesday evening marked another milestone.

After a gritty defensive showdown at Columbiana High School, West Branch walked off the court with a 45-39 victory over the host Clippers for their 17th win of the season, which ties the school’s single-season record for wins, a mark set 29 years ago.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Nick Everett puts up a shot during the second half. He tied the team-high with 12 points in the Warriors 45-39 victory at Columbiana High School.

“We talked tonight before the game that we thought that this was a ‘legacy game’ for our seniors,” Warriors coach Michael Brown said. “This ties the wins record in a regular season at West Branch High School.

“So we were excited. We had something to play for, and that’s what we want to do, but we want to make sure that we take it one game at a time. I think that’s why we’ve gotten to the point we have. We’ve been patient. We don’t look ahead. We play the opponent, (and) we respect the opponent that we’re against.”

There wasn’t a whole lot of scoring early on with West Branch holding a 12-4 edge after the first quarter. The Clippers started to make a run with Matthew Mazei making some shots, but 6-foot-7 forward Nick Everett helped West Branch keep a 26-19 lead going into halftime.

“In the beginning, we weren’t hitting shots, it seemed like every shot we threw up, it was going out,” Everett said. “But, coach (Brown) kept saying in the timeout, throw it in, kick it out, and that’s where we got most of our looks, and that’s kind of what happened here tonight.”

Columbiana went on a big 12-0 run in the third, which included a pair of important buckets by Hunter Zentner to cut the deficit to 32-31. The Clippers took their first lead of the game late in the third quarter after Sean Whitehead made a look to give his team a 33-32 edge.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Matthew Mazei, center, snags a rebound in the first half for Columbiana.

Despite fighting back, that was the only time Columbiana was in front, as Cohen Lamp gave West Branch the lead right before the end of the third.

Reese Leone helped guide the Warriors to the road win by tying the game-high in scoring with 12, seven of those points coming in the final 8 minutes.

“We kind of rely on our sit-down half-court man defense and out-tough other teams,” Leone said. “That’s usually what we do. We try to hold teams to under 35-40 points, and usually that’s how we get it done.”

Everett and Whitehead also tied the game-high with 12 points for each of their respective teams.

The Clippers conclude their regular season with a record of 18-3, and coach Todd Johnson feels that playing against Division II West Branch helps with preparation for his team’s playoff matchup.

“East Palestine is a league team, we’ve seen them twice, but Cardinal Mooney is another big team.” he said. “They’re very physical, they’re going to be up in our shirts like West Branch was tonight.”

Columbiana is the third seed and has a first-round bye in the Division III Salem district.

Meanwhile, West Branch is now 17-4, and they have one final regular season test this Friday at St. Thomas Aquinas to potentially earn the school’s record with an 18th win.

The Warriors are the third seed in the Division II Boardman District and also have a first-round bye.

They’ll play either Ursuline or Howland on the 28th, but Brown wants his team’s focus to be on the regular season finale.

“We’re focused on our regular season right now,” he said. “If you have a tendency to look too far ahead, then you’re not getting better that week.

“So, that’s kind of been our approach and it helped us tonight. If we look ahead tonight, we wouldn’t have come out victorious.”