The threat Johnson presented turned out to be an empty one.

West Forsyth’s girls fell behind by eight points in the second quarter and appeared to be in danger of surrendering a victory to the winless Lady Knights, but the Lady Wolverines seized control with suffocating defense and cruised to a 57-37 victory on Friday in The Den.

Kelsey Turchi led West with 18 points, while Kelsey Baker scored 15 and Megan Whittaker added 10.

The Lady Wolverines ended the first half on an 8-0 run and started the third quarter with another, outscoring Johnson 43-15  after trailing 22-14 shortly before halftime.

“We didn’t really make any great adjustments. It’s more [about] the girls doing the things they’re supposed to do ... being aggressive and attacking gaps when they’re there,” West coach Dennis Benedict said.

“I think we played pretty well defensively. We started applying some pressure and that caused some turnovers.”

The victory came only three days after West pulled out a 46-44 overtime upset of subregion leader Gainesville on Tuesday in The Den.

“We hit a lot of shots early and that helped us,” Benedict said of the win against the Red Elephants.

“The key was, they tried to press us early and we responded real well to the pressure and scored three times after that.”

The game was tied 26-all at halftime and 41-all at the end of regulation. Gainesville scored the first three points of the extra period, but Whittaker led the Lady Wolverines to victory by scoring four of her team’s five points in overtime.

She led West with 17 points, while Baker added 13.

“She [Megan] was good late and Kelsey Baker was on fire early, in terms of points,” Benedict said.

“I think we held our own, [even though Gainesville is] a lot bigger than us. Nikki Erdely is not very big and doesn’t score a lot of points for us, but she’s a real tough defensive player and dives on the floor [after the ball].”  

West will travel to East Hall to face the Lady Vikings on Tuesday.