West Point's Bryant Farley, Will Wrenn and Levi Laney make life tough on Good Hope's Tyler Elrod in Tuesday's 54-25 win for the Warriors.

WEST POINT — When the going got tough Tuesday night, West Point’s girls turned it on for Tess.

With senior leader Mallory Walker already lost for the season, the Lady Warriors were dealt another dose of adversity when Tess Hembree took an inadvertent blow to the face in the third quarter. Hembree never returned, but West Point’s shooting stroke sure did, resulting in a massive swing and 45-41 county victory.

Good Hope controlled the game early and extended its lead to 22-17 to open the second half before the home team reeled off 17 unanswered points. The decisive surge was anchored by Jeri Beasley and included long-range contributions from Bailee Yearwood, Lexie Burdette and Lexi Bell.

Yearwood’s trey tied the game with 2:30 to go in the third quarter, and Burdette’s personal five-point spree put West Point up for good.

“I think that we were just a little frustrated,” Beasley said. “And then once we started hitting our shots, I think that kind of got us going.”

So did watching Hembree make an early exit.

“We don’t like to see a teammate hurt,” Beasley said. “We’re family.”

The Raiders used a sizable outburst of their own to claw back within one but ultimately couldn’t recover from their 12-2 deficit in the third quarter.

The Warriors (15-8) helped their cause with eight straight successful free throws at one point in the final eight minutes. They finished the quarter 11 of 16 overall from the gimme distance.

Beasley led a balanced effort with 13 points. Burdette and Yearwood posted eight points apiece, Bell buzzed in for seven and Madison Roberts had four. Hembree, who was in good spirits and back to her usual goofy self by the boys game, managed five points before her premature departure.

Though pleased by the victory — “I’ll take it any way I can get it” — first-year varsity coach John Welborn still had one area he’ll surely harp on in West Point’s next practice.

“We turned the ball over way too much against their press,” he said. “These other girls have got to step up. They’ve got to start handling the basketball. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell them.”

Kelly Pickett looked like anything but a Good Hope seventh-grader with 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. Kate Kent worked the paint for 10 points — all in the first half — and Celest Whisenant and Kaylee Maddox both tacked on eight. Sadie Abbott added two.

Coach Michael Oldacre chalked up the Raiders’ loss to poor decision-making. Well, that and West Point’s grit.

“I give them credit,” he said. “They hustle like crazy. They scrap, and they’re pretty mean and tough.”

Good Hope won’t have to wait long to get another shot at the Warriors with the two set to face off in the first round of this month’s county tournament. The Raiders, who will enter the bragging rights bonanza as the No. 4 seed, topped fifth-seeded West Point 64-59 early last month.

“We know we can beat them,” Oldacre said. “We hope we come and play and make better decisions next time around. Overall, I think we’re getting better, but we didn’t necessarily do it tonight.”

Tuesday’s clash was extremely intense, with girls from both squads hitting the deck all throughout the evening. Beasley doesn’t expect much to change when the two tango at Wallace State’s Tom Drake Coliseum.

If she has her way, though, West Point won’t take nearly as long to get going.

“I think we’ll come out a lot harder,” Beasley said.

Varsity Boys

% West Point 54, Good Hope 28: The Raiders provided an early scare, but Ryder Jones and Riley Voce squashed it with 17 combined points in the second quarter to help the Warriors complete the sweep.

Mason Johnson closed the first frame with back-to-back 3-pointers to give one-win Good Hope a surprising 11-6 advantage before West Point started the second stanza with 17 straight points. All but three came from Jones and Voce.

Jones led all scorers with 12 points. Voce was hot on his tail with 10. Other Warrior contributors were Levi Laney, eight points; Will Wrenn, seven; Jacob Daniel, six; Tanner Rusk and Kobe Smith, five each; and Bryant Farley, one.

Reese Harbison was the Raiders’ high guy with seven points. Johnson finished with the pair of early treys. Other contributors were Tyler Elrod, four points; Eric Murphree and Tyler Vanderburg, both three; and Noah Tillman, two.