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WESTWOOD -- The Gladstone girls basketball team fell behind early, and despite a second-quarter surge, fell to Westwood 56-40 Monday in Westwood.
The only points the Braves (3-4) scored in the first quarter were from the charity stripe, with Claire van Ginhoven going 4-for-4, starting the second quarter 19-4.
"You wouldn't believe it by looking at the score, but we actually executed our offense very well in the first quarter," Braves coach Andy Cretens said. "We just did not finish our layups and did not knock down some great looks from the perimeter. We understand that happens sometimes."
Gladstone limited the Patriots (4-0) to just six in the second, cutting its deficit to 25-15 at the half, but couldn't replicate the feat in the second half.
"The final score was a little deceptive, but we feel we had them on the ropes most of the fourth quarter," Creten said. "We were down by eight or nine points most of the fourth, and every time we felt like we were going to make it a tight game, we shot ourselves in the foot.
"We often talk about how we can lose a game on the scoreboard but still felt good about our performance. We played a really talented team tonight, and we had them frustrated. We felt like we could really build off of this game."
van Ginhoven lead the Braves with 18.
"Claire got us going offensively and was very consistent for us all night on that end of the floor," Cretens said. "What we're most excited about tonight is how we got everyone involved on that end of the floor.
"We felt like Chloe Hanson did a great job defensively on Natalie Prophet -- an elite scorer -- in the first half. When Chloe got in foul trouble, we had to switch her off of her, and Prophet got hot in the third as we tried to find a good matchup for her. Eventually, Aliana Martinez stepped up in that role and did a great job in the fourth quarter while we tried to make a run at them. They have a lot of threats, but we were mostly worried about Prophet and Marta. Jamisyn Bergeron did an outstanding job on Marta all night -- another talented scorer. What she did was pretty impressive."
Natalie Prophet led Westwood with 18 points, and Alyssa Prophet notched 11.
Gladstone hosts Westwood Tuesday.
Gladstone 4 11 11 14 -- 40
Westwood 19 6 18 13 -- 56
Gladstone -- van Ginhoven 18, Hanson 7, Hall 6, Schone 5, Martinez 3, Bergeron 1. FT: 9-12; F: 9; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: van Ginhoven 2, Hanson 1, Schone 1, Martinez 1.
Westwood -- N. Prophet 24, A. Prophet 11, Leele 8, Me. Marta 7, Koski 6. FT: 4-12; F:17; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: N. Prophet 4.