By Anastasia Stepankowsky

The No. 3 West Seattle Wildcats (17-2) put on a clinic Wednesday night, schooling the Seattle Prep Panthers (9-10) in girls basketball action Wednesday night.

West Seattle scored first off of a shot from Lexi Ioane. It was followed by the first of Prep senior Olivia Morrow’s four three-pointers of the night to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead. Prep kept it close for the first half, but the Wildcats took command in the second half to claim a lopsided 52-29 victory.

Both Ioane and junior Lydia Giomi were solid shooters for the Wildcats all night with Ioane making two 3-pointers with a total of 11 points while Giomi netted a total of 19 points for the game.

Seattle Prep kept within striking distance largely because of the aggressive rebounding and ball thievery of sophomore Chinwe Ezeonu and senior Andraya Flor. Prep trailed only 12-10 after the first 8 minutes.

“I knew that this would be a tough team. They’ve had a lot of close games and have won some games,” West Seattle head coach Sonya Elliott said following the victory.

The Wildcats took command late in the second quarter and led 27-20 at halftime. Stifling defense put the game away following the break, as West Seattle held the Panthers to 2 points in the third quarter and 9 points in the half.

“I think in the second half — when we just went full man-to-man and focused on the people that we needed to defend — that helped us. Our defense was strong and that makes a big difference. We got that going and offensively we were a little more patient,” Elliott said.

Elliott said she feels good about her team as the playoffs loom. The Wildcats are in the top bracket in the Metro Championships.

“Even if we struggle in the beginning, the girls don’t give up, and I think that’s what is really great about this team. They have great energy and they’re very positive and they don’t give up on the game and each other,” Elliott said, “If we focus one game at a time, we’ll do fine.”

West Seattle’s last regular season game is at home against Franklin at 6:30 p.m. Friday.