Westwood girls top Crisp Academy in battle of defending state champs

CAMILLA — In an early season matchup that seemed more fitting for the postseason, Westwood outslugged Crisp Academy 45-34 in a rare Monday night game at Westwood Academy.

Behind 17 points from Morgan Singleton and 14 from Callie Smith, Westwood stayed undefeated on the season.

Both teams are coming off tremendous seasons. Crisp Academy won the GISA Class A state championship a year ago for the fourth straight time, while Westwood won their second straight GISA Class AA state title.

Both moved up in classification this year, but should still figure into the postseason chase. But Westwood coach Jenni Smith knows it’s a long season.

“We started really slow,” Smith said. “It took us halfway through the first quarter to even get going. We had one good run right before halftime. We got our offense and defense clicking. That was probably the best part of the game that we played. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Both teams struggled to score points in the first quarter. Crisp Academy led by a pair of baskets before Smith called a timeout with 3:47 to go.

Westwood finally cracked the scoreboard when Morgan Singleton was fouled and hit one of two free throws. Both teams picked up the scoring thereafter, and the quarter ended with Westwood’s Callie Smith hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer, tying the score at 10.

The scoring increased in the second quarter with Crisp Academy grabbing a 20-16 lead with 2:15 to go. Then Callie Smith scored, was fouled and completed the 3-point play. Westwood took the lead at 21-20 on a basket by Lexi Davis with a little over a minute to play. The first half ended just as the first quarter did as Callie Smith scored as the horn sounded to give Westwood a 23-22 halftime lead.

Westwood went on a 15-0 run to start the second half, in part thanks to five points from McKenlee Coleman and four from Morgan Singleton.

Sidney Folsom finally was able to give Crisp Academy its first two points of the second half in the waining minutes of the third quarter. The third quarter ended with Westwood up 37-27. Folsom scored all five of Crisp Academy’s points in the third quarter.

Both teams went the first 2:08 of the fourth quarter scoring a total of four points. With 4:17 left, Crisp’s Sydney Wells stole the ball and was fouled.

Wells sank both free throws, cutting Westwood’s lead to 39-33. Then Singleton took over for Westwood, scoring two baskets to increase the lead to 43-33 with 1:56 left. From that point, Crisp Academy was unable to close the gap.

” I thought we played pretty good defense and offense in the first half,” Crisp Academy coach Gina Mitchell said. “In the third quarter, we messed up and we let it get away from us. We had 30 turnovers. Anytime you have 30 turnovers, you’re not going to beat anybody. We’ve got to learn to take care of the ball.”

Folsom led Crisp Academy with 13 points.

CRISP ACADEMY BOYS 81, WESTWOOD 57: Crisp Academy won the Wildcat duel in dominating fashion as Bobby Ray Mitchell scored 42 points. Westwood’s Collier Baggett nearly scored all of his team’s points, leading all scorers with 44.

Crisp Academy totally dominated the first half, with Mitchell scoring 15 of his 42 points. Crisp went into the locker room with a 38-18 lead. Baggett almost single-handedly was the engine for Westwood’s offense, scoring 14 of the team’s 18 first half points.

Crisp Academy wasted no time in jumping out to a 48-22 lead early in the third quarter, thanks to eight points from Mitchell and a basket by Cole Melton. As in the first half, the only offense Westwood could get was from Baggett, who scored all of Westwood’s first 11 points of the third quarter.

However, Mitchell picked up where he left off scoring 14 points in the third and helping Crisp get to a 60-34 advantage by the end of the third quarter.

Westwood made a 12-4 run to start the fourth, but Crisp quickly crushed any hopes of a Westwood comeback with a 17-11 run of their own to close out the victory.

Crisp Academy also had two other players in double figures — Melton scored 14 points and Ravi Patel chipped in 12.