WENDELL - Monday’s girls match up between East Wake and Smithfield-Selma could have ended after the third quarter, and it would not have made a difference.

The Lady Spartans outscored the Lady Warriors by one point during a fourth quarter when both teams scored a combined 5 points in the final 8 minutes of play, but in the end East Wake claimed another conference victory in the 62-23 blowout of the Spartans.

With the win, the Warriors advance to 12-3, 5-1 in the Greater Neuse River 4A Conference while Smithfield-Selma fell to 2-8, 0-4.

For Spartans head coach William Sanders, the answer was simple.

“We didn’t play well,” he said after the game. “We started out good, but then we fell apart.”

Both teams got off to a fast start, and for most of the first quarter the Spartans kept it close. But by the time the buzzer sounded, East Wake had stretched out a 10-point lead.

The Warriors never looked back.

At halftime East Wake held a 21-point lead and the difference nearly doubled in the third quarter. Concentrating on defense, the Warriors scored just 2 points in the final frame.

“The main thing in the fourth quarter was we wanted to focus on defense,” said East Wake coach Toni Vick. “We got a lot more stops defensively than usual, and we held them to under 24 points.”

Vick singled out junior forward Shakerrya Morrison — the Warriors’ high scorer with 21 points.

“Shakerrya played hard like she always does. She brings intensity to every game and she has a winner’s mentality,” Vick said.

This week, local high school basketball teams enter the second half of conference play.

“I feel good about our season so far,” Vick said. “We have a fairly young team, and the girls are working hard.”

Sanders, whose Spartans have struggled to find their tempo, is still hopeful.

“We have a shot at the teams one more time,” he said. “We’re going to keep working.”

In addition to Morrison’s 21 points, other high scorers for East Wake included Tianna Knuckles with 15 points, Kianna Wynn with 8 and Shayla Tanner with 6.

Smithfield-Selma was led by Sabrina Shepherd with 10 points and Breanna Chappell with 7.