VIDEO: West Orange girls hoops beats district rival Wekiva | Observer Preps

WINTER GARDEN The West Orange girls basketball team took the first punch Wednesday night against district rival Wekiva — the Mustangs opened the game on a 7-0 run that left the Warriors reeling.

West Orange battled back, though, and three 3-pointers in the first quarter from Kennedi Rodgers helped to spark the Warriors. That momentum carried over into the second quarter — where West Orange outscored Wekiva 27-12 — and the Warriors (15-2, 4-1 district) hardly looked back the rest of the way, eventually defeating the Mustangs (14-3, 3-1 district) 69-54.

"We know that Wekiva is a pressure-based team — they come after you," West Orange head coach Shrell Chamberlain said. "We got down 7-0, but we kept our head up — we knew it was coming and we told the girls to play through it."

Rodgers finished with 15 points on the game, second only to teammate Morgan Beacham, who poured in a game-high 24 points in the winning effort. Katelyn Kinney also finished in double-figures for the Warriors, ending the night with 12 points.

"We knew that they were going to kind of play help-defense inside the paint, because of Morgan," Chamberlain said. "That left Kennedi open and she did a great job shooting the ball tonight."

Myanna Garrett led Wekiva with 14 points, while Emmy James added 13 on the night.