It wasn’t always pretty, but in the end, West Limestone did just enough to avoid an upset and take a 52-45 victory over Clements Tuesday night.

The Wildcats led just 39-37 after three quarters, but held Clements to just eight points in the fourth quarter to pull away and take the win.

“That may be the only good thing we did all night,” West Limestone coach Justin Taylor said about the fourth-quarter defense. “We were very sloppy. They (Clements) are a scrappy, tough team. They gave us a good test. I never felt like that one was over.”

West Limestone had lots of trouble stopping Clements’ Dylan Patrick, who scored a game-high 24 points. Sixteen of those came in the second half, as he nearly single-handedly kept the Colts in the game.

“We gave up that middle drive way too much,” Taylor said. “We couldn’t stay in front of (Patrick) and he made us pay.”

Clements raced out to a 17-12 lead after one quarter, and West didn’t take its first lead of the game until River Helms made two free throws with 1:48 left in the second quarter to put the Wildcats up 23-21.

West then expanded the lead to 26-23 at halftime.

The Wildcats started strong in the third quarter, and led 39-31, but Patrick scored the next six points for Clements to make the score 39-37 after three.

Two free throws by Landon Martin tied the score at 41 early in the fourth quarter, but Branson Owens hit a 3-pointer on West Limestone’s next possession to give the Wildcats a lead they would never relinquish.

Helms led West Limestone with 20 points, while Camryn Williams scored 13 and Brody White tallied eight.

Martin scored nine points for Clements in addition to Patrick’s 24.

“There’s a lot of little things that could have ended up costing us,” Taylor said. “We were fortunate to get out of here with a win.”

Girls

West Limestone 46, Clements 33

West Limestone’s Carlie Belle Winter and Sara Rose had somewhat of a tag-team partnership in Tuesday night’s game against Clements, and it helped the Wildcats take a 13-point win.

Winter had the hot hand in the first half, scoring 12 points as West Limestone took an 18-11 halftime lead. However, the freshman got into foul trouble in the second half and had to sit for long stretches of time.

Enter Rose, who had only scored two points in the first half. She took over the scoring load, scoring 13 points including hitting four 3-pointers. West Limestone expanded its lead to 35-26 after three quarters and then turned up the defense in the fourth, holding Clements to just seven points.

“We needed a win and it was a great team win,” West Limestone coach Chasity Legg said. “The girls played hard from start to finish and I was proud of them.”

Rose led all scorers with 15 points, while Winter had 14 for the Wildcats.

Clements was led by Jenny Trent, who scored 10 points. Janiah Anderson added eight for the Colts.