West Limestone's Christian Clemmons looks for a lane to the basket against two Elkmont defenders on Tuesday night. The Wildcats defeated the Red Devils 56-36.

West Limestone players know if they don’t put in great effort on the defensive side of the ball, they will find a seat on the bench.

They seemed to take that message to heart Tuesday against Elkmont, and it resulted in a 56-36 win against the Red Devils.

“We play nine guys very interchangeably, so you’d better play hard or somebody else will,” West Limestone coach Justin Taylor said. “I think this team can be a pretty good defensive team. We’ve got some things we’ve got to get better at, but they play hard. I like their effort on defense.”

The Wildcats’ defense really came to the forefront in the third quarter. West Limestone held a slim 24-19 halftime lead, but held Elkmont to just two points in the third quarter as they pulled away for a comfortable victory.

“I didn’t realize we had held them to two points,” Taylor said. “They really got after it on defense there in the third quarter.”

It was a good thing for West Limestone that its defending was strong, because it took the Wildcats a little bit of time to find their rhythm on outside shooting.

West Limestone’s offense consists of shooting a lot of 3-pointers, and the Wildcats were missing them early, scoring just nine points in the first quarter. However, they eventually started to fall, and West finished the game with nine made 3-point baskets.

“I think we’re a pretty good shooting team, so we’re going to keep shooting it,” Taylor said. “We have as good a percentage from the 3-point line as we do around the basket, so we might as well try to get three points. It’s not because it’s some great percentage, it’s because we can’t score around the basket that well.”

West Limestone improved its record to 11-4 while Elkmont fell to 7-9.

The Wildcats were led by Braden Tuten and Alex Casteel, who each scored 13 points, while Chayse Carter scored 11.

Patrick Jobman led Elkmont with 12 points, while Ben Hobbs and Davis Hobbs each scored eight points in the loss.

West Limestone girls 49, Elkmont 40

West Limestone overcame a halftime deficit with some strong defense and timely offense and took a nine-point victory over Elkmont.

The Wildcats trailed 21-17 at the half but came out strong in the third quarter behind the performance of Raegan Clem. Clem scored 15 of West Limestone’s 19 points in the quarter, as the Wildcats took a 36-32 lead into the final eight minutes.

Cassidy Winter then took over scoring duties in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 of the Wildcats’ 13 points in the final period, as West pulled away for the nine-point win.

“I’m very pleased,” West Limestone coach Chasity Legg said. “The girls played hard in the second half, fixed the problems that needed to be fixed and made some shots. They picked it up on defense and started rebounding.”

Winter led the Wildcats with 19 points, while Clem scored 17, with 15 of those coming in the third quarter.

Elkmont was led by Haven Kirby with eight points.