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Westside’s No. 1 AA girls’ basketball team hasn’t faced a lot of challenges so far this season. Scott provided one on Wednesday night.

The Lady Renegades held off the Skyhawks, 53-45, at Clear Fork, in a meeting of last year’s championship game finalists.

It was Westside’s closest game of the season so far.

“I don’t think we came ready to play,” commented WHS coach Jamie Lusk. “We need to come out and play with a lot more enthusiasm and fire.”

Scott, which trailed by as much as 13 in the third quarter, closed the gap to 46-42 when Ali Whitman dropped in a five-footer from left of the bucket with less than three minutes left.

Hope Lester connected off a feed from Faith Davis to push the margin back to six.

Faith Davis then drove through the lane for two to make it 50-42 , and that drew a Skyhawk time out with :57 to go.

Scott missed its next shot, and a Kristen Hash lay up off a dish from Davis gave the Renegades a 10-point edge.

It didn’t look like the game would be close in the early going.

Westside jumped to a 10-0 lead in the opening minutes. Morgan Spolarich’s bucket off a long pass from Lester made it 17-8 at the end of the first quarter.

The Skyhawks hung around, mostly behind the scoring of Whitman, who had a game-high 18, and guard Jaime Dotson.

Dotson’s three with 2:55 left in the half got Scott within 23-16.

Westside used a 6-2 mini-spurt in the final minute to go to the locker room with a 29-18 advantage.

The Renegades were up by as much as 13, 39-26, late in the third.

“I thought we were kind of lackadaisical,” Lusk remarked.

Scott trimmed the margin to 39-32 by the end of third and continued to whittle away at the lead.

“We didn’t rebound very well,” said Lusk. “We let them have a lot of second chance points, and one of the things we stress is holding the other team to one shot.

“We have to attack the basket ,” he added. “Faith Davis made some big plays by going into the lane.”

Davis paced WHS with 15, and Lester scored 11. Spolarich scored nine, and Hash had eight.

Whitman and Dotson (11) sparked the Skyhawks.

• In a game on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013: SCOTT 43, POCA 33: Scott raced

out to a 13-1 first quarter lead and never looked back. For the

Skyhawks, Ali Whitman led all scorers with 12 points while Jaimee

Dotson and Landon McKinney added 11 points apiece. Kendal Sayre scored

nine points for the Dots.