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By Nolan Imsande

MACON — Just like so many other times this season, the Westwood girls basketball team found a way to get it done.

The Lady Wildcats were without their point guard for parts of the game but battled to beat The Heritage School 41-35 in the semifinals of the Georgia Independent School Association Class AAA playoffs at Mercer’s Hawkins Arena Friday night.

In the quarterfinals against Bulloch Academy, the Lady Wildcats needed a buzzer beater by Callie Smith to win and advance to the semis.

“They don’t care about any individual thing,” Westwood coach Jenni Smith said. “They care about the score on the scoreboard and that we won the ball game.”

Westwood’s Haley Marshall and Heritage’s Kara Groover opened the game with the first five points for their respective teams.

The Westwood offense struggled after its opening baskets, turning the ball over multiple times and going scoreless for more than three minutes.

Heritage led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter.

The squads battled back and forth in the second with Heritage going up by as many as three before Westwood regained the lead on a jumper by McKenlee Coleman with under 10 seconds left in the first half. The basket put Westwood up 19-18 at halftime.

Late in the second quarter, Westwood’s Callie Smith rolled her ankle while the Lady Wildcats were on defense. She stayed out of the game for the remainder of the first half, but eventually came back midway through the third quarter.

With Callie Smith out, the Lady Wildcats built an eight-point lead. Karlie Jones and Haley Marshall stepped up in Smith’s absence, each finishing with 11 points.

“That was wonderful,” Jenni Smith said. “I think that goes to show what kind of team we have. They stepped up and they went out there under some serious distress. When you have your point guard on the bench, it is really always a sketchy problem. They stepped up and everybody contributed.”

Upon Callie Smith’s return, she scored Westwood’s last four points of the third to give them a 32-26 heading into the final quarter.

Olivia Ayers scored four straight points to open the fourth for the Lady Hawks and got them within two, but that was as close as Heritage would get. They failed to score for more than six minutes after Ayers’ points.

Westwood put the game away at the charity stripe. The Lady Wildcats hit six of their last seven free throws to make it a 41-35 game with under 20 seconds left.

Jones and Marshall were the Lady Wildcats only players in double digits.

Groover led all scorers with 19 points.

Jenni Smith said it was unlikely Callie Smith’s injury would hold her out of the championship game.

“She was able to go on it for a while tonight,” she said. “We are going to put some of coach’s special treatment on it tonight. I predict she is going to be on it and moving tomorrow.”

The Lady Wildcats will face Gatewood, who beat Westfield in the GISA Class AAA championship game Saturday at 5:20 p.m. at Hawkins Arena.