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By Nolan Imsande

CAMILLA — The Westwood girls trailed for the first three minutes of Tuesday’s game and for Holy Spirit Prep, the brief two-point lead was as good as it would get.

The Lady Wildcats’ offense clicked on all cylinders in a 70-40 victory over the Lady Cougars in the first-round of the Georgia Independent Schools Association Class AAA state tournament.

After giving up the first basket of the game, Westwood embarked on a 22-2 run, highlighted by multiple second-chance baskets for the Lady Wildcats. The run included a four-point trip down the court where Gracie Pollock was fouled, made the layup and missed the free throw before Lexie Davis stuffed the missed basket home.

Westwood’s run came without Karlie Jones. The forward picked up two quick fouls and was forced to sit for the majority of the first half. Jones still managed to score eight points, including six in the fourth quarter.

“Props to the other kids for stepping up and doing their job,” Westwood coach Jenni Smith said. “When you bench a starter on anybody’s team, most of us just aren’t deep enough to sustain a half without a starter.”

Holy Spirit chipped away at the lead slowly in the second quarter. After trailing by 20, the Lady Cougars cut it down to a 10-point game. But a three-point play by Pollock gave Westwood a 29-14 lead.

“I thought we started the game well,” Smith said. “We stretched out a pretty good lead and then kind of let them close the gap right before the half. I wasn’t really happy at the half with a couple of things going on on defense.”

The teams came out in the second half and each traded back-to-back threes twice, but that was the majority of Holy Spirit’s offense.

Westwood closed the third quarter on a 14-2 run to give them a 51-26 lead at the end of the third.

Herald Super 6er Callie Smith gave Westwood a big boost, hitting three treys in the third quarter. She finished as the leading scorer with 28 points.

“We quit turning the ball over in the second half,” Smith said. “In the first half, there were so many possessions when we came down and turned it over before we had a shot attempt.”

Pollock scored 15 points for Westwood, including nine in the second quarter.

Holy Spirit was led by Annaleena Hanson who dropped 19.