Quarter-finals Girls' Varsity Basketball vs Millard West | 3/5/2015 from Warrior Television on Vimeo.

Jan. 17, the Westside girls varsity basketball team (22-4) struggled to keep up with the Millard West Wildcats (19-7). Millard West hit nine threes to gain as much as a 16-point lead before beating Westside 71-62.

Westside has not lost since then, and tonight, the Warriors tacked on a victory over the Wildcats to their streak.

Playing in the opening round of the NSAA Class A Girls Basketball State Tournament, the Warriors used a strong third quarter and tremendous defense from the second quarter on to coast to a 55-40 victory and exact their revenge on the Wildcats for that January loss.

In the first quarter, third-seeded Westside traded buckets with sixth-seeded Millard West. Ultimately, the Wildcats pulled away to lead 20-13 after one quarter. The lead didn’t stay at seven for long, though.

At the beginning of the second, senior Jenn Poots and freshman Quinn Weidemann (12 points) helped the Warriors start hot. The two scored back-to-back baskets, cutting the Millard West lead to 20-17 and forcing a Millard West timeout. Then, with 1:22 remaining in the first half, senior Jay Bridgeman, who finished the game with 15 points, gave Westside its first lead, 23-22, with a bucket. The teams would head into the locker room tied up at 24.

“We took a lot of shots that weren’t falling for us in the first quarter, so we knew that in order to stay in the game we had to stop them defensively,” Bridgeman said.

Soon, that tie would be an eight-point Westside lead. In a third quarter that mirrored Westside’s two district tournament third quarters — the Warriors dominated their two opponents in those two third periods, outscoring both by double digits — senior Regan Johnson (15 points in the game) sunk a deep two-point shot to put the Warriors up 30-25 with 5:10 remaining. Three minutes later, Weidemann hit a free throw to give Westside a 36-28 lead, the final count for the third quarter.

“For some reason, our team always comes out of halftime stronger than the first half,” Bridgeman said. “…We know what we need to do to get the win.”

In the fourth quarter, Millard West tried to make a run, but to no avail. With three-point shots not falling for Millard West at nearly the rate they had in the teams’ first meeting, Westside was able to extend its lead to as much as 19 before finishing the game with the 15-point, 55-40 victory.

The Warriors advance to the semifinals to play Lincoln Northeast (25-1). Northeast beat Westside 65-61 in the first game of Westside’s season. The game will be at Pinnacle Bank Arena at 8:45 tomorrow, March 6.

Bridgeman said Lincoln Northeast has speedy guards and good shooters, so she expects a fast-paced game. The Warriors should have the edge in the post.

“We are expecting to get out and run the floor a lot [while] making sure to get back in transition,” Bridgeman said.

The winner of that game will head into the state tournament championship game to face the winner of Bellevue West, who beat South Sioux City in its opening round game, and Norfolk, who shocked the first-seeded Benson Bunnies earlier today to advance.

“We have worked really hard to get where we are, and our goal is only two games away,” Bridgeman said. “…It’s every athlete’s dream to lead their team to state their senior year, and the fact that we are just two games away from that is awesome.”

If you can’t make it to Westside’s semifinal game, make sure to follow us @westsidewired on Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram for live updates.