On Tuesday, the Southwest Lady Patriots easily took care of Thomson, cruising to a 66-33 win in the first round of the GHSA Class AAA playoffs.

But Southwest head coach Willie Goolsby could only find areas of the Lady Patriots’ game to improve.

“We really gotta improve; we gotta get better,” Goolsby said. “As we go on, everything gets tougher.”

The first quarter was a sign of things to come for the rest of the game for both teams. The Lady Patriots scored often and early and were soon out to a 26-9 lead at the end of the quarter. Ny’Asia Holmes led the way with eight points in the quarter and finished with 17.

The second quarter was more of the same as the Lady Patriots continued to hold their commanding lead. Southwest jumped out of the gates and went on an 11-0 run before De’Shia Dunn broke the streak with a score. At the end of the first half, the Lady Patriots led 38-19 and showed no signs of slowing down in the second half.

Southwest dominated the third quarter as it scored 15 points while the Lady Bulldogs countered with only three. The Lady Patriots ended the third quarter on a 14-0 run and held all the momentum heading into the final quarter with a 54-22 lead.

A very physical fourth quarter ensued, and Thomson saw key sophomore Aleshia Johnson go down with an apparent knee injury early on. The Lady Patriots started the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run before a timeout was called.

After the timeout, Thomson came back with a run of its own and finished the game with a 10-2 run. Eight of the 10 points in the quarter were scored by Jadah Lawson. Lawson finished the game with 11 points and was the leading scorer for Thomson.

The leading scorer for the Lady Patriots was SheKenya Peters, who finished with 18 points.

“For us this year our main goal was to make state playoffs,” Thomson head coach Michael Williams said. “It’s been 11 years since Thomson’s made it.”