BLYTHEWOOD – From the tip-off, a dialed-in Westwood girls basketball team dominated Conway at the Castle Tuesday night.
In the opening round of the 5A Division 2 playoffs, the Redhawks jumped to a 17-2 lead by the end of the first quarter, overcame a lapse in the second half, and rolled to a 66-23 win with a running clock in the final four minutes of the game.
Lyric Rogers led No. 7 Westwood (16-10) with 15 points, Amari Alexander chipped in 11 points and Amari Duggar added 10 points. The rest of the team also contributed greatly—all 10 girls on the roster scored at least a basket, and Kalen Green led the rebounds with eight. The team had a total of 32 boards.
“I thought it was balanced,” Westwood head coach Gregory Bauldrick said. “Lyric had a bunch, Amari (Alexander) had a few, and then Duggar inside was pretty good inside too. I think we got a good balanced attack tonight from everybody.”
With Rebecca Hemingway leading the 10th-seeded Tigers, Conway scored 15 points in the second quarter, outscoring Westwood’s 13. The Redhawks still went into halftime with a 30-17 lead and outscored the Tigers 25-5 in the third quarter to lead 55-22 going into the fourth.
“We talked about that during halftime, just the little slides, the mental lapses that happened defensively in the second quarter,” Bauldrick said. “I thought we came out in the third quarter and kind of locked back in.”
Hemingway finished the game scoring 12 points for the Tigers (5-15).
Westwood wrapped up region play with a 53-44 victory at Sumter Friday night to finish 7-5 in the region, good for third place behind region champion Blythewood (20-5, 11-1) and second-place Ridge View (15-7, 10-2).
The task gets significantly harder for the Redhawks Friday, as they travel to No. 1 seed North Myrtle Beach (22-0). The Chiefs finished 10-0 in Region 6-5A, and their only single-digit wins came at Socastee (37-30, Jan. 9) and at home against Carolina Forest (57-52, Jan. 13). North Myrtle Beach averages 59.3 points per game and has allowed 23.9 points per game this season.
“Our focus has got to be on how we play, not who we play,” Bauldrick said. “I think we’re good enough and we’re talented enough to where if we focus on the how and not the who, then we’ll be good enough to compete with anybody, regardless of who the who is.”