West Seneca West’s girls basketball team finally broke through with its first league win of the season Thursday when it topped Sweet Home, 49-44 — though the Lady Indians needed overtime to do it.

Allie Chavanne came up four steals short of a triple double, scoring nine of her 25 points in overtime — seven of which came from her 7-of-10 performance from the free throw line — to lead West to the victory. She also scored eight points in West’s fourth quarter, which saw the Lady Indians outscore the Lady Panthers by a 16-9 margin to knot the score at 39-39 at the end of regulation.

“That was probably the best game of Allie’s career,” coach Lori Potter said. “She was clutch from the free throw line in overtime. She’s been our most consistent player all year. She’s 5-foot-4, but she’s still our third-leading rebounder. She’s scrappy, she hustles, and she’s rarely off the court.”

West found itself down 14-5 after the first quarter, but was able to trim Sweet Home’s lead back down to three points going into the second half, 20-17. The Lady Indians took advantage of Sweet Home’s foul trouble — two of the Lady Panthers, who scored a combined 23 points, fouled out — to keep things close and ultimately come out ahead.

Jen Green chipped in with nine points, while Jen Maguder added five points and seven rebounds. Anna Purdy contributed four points and four assists, while Tori Hildebrand chipped in by pulling down seven rebounds.

“We played them tough the first time around, and this time we switched up our defenses a bit more than we have in the past, which seemed to work out for us,” Potter said. “We did a little bit better of a job rebounding this time, as well as in pushing the ball up the floor.”

West was unable to carry the momentum over to Monday’s game, though, as the Lady Indians fell to Orchard Park, 66-52. West rallied from a 20-13 deficit to knot the game at the half, 29-29, but some offensive struggles in the second half prevented the Lady Indians from closing the deal.

Orchard Park also used a 9-3 advantage in three-point baskets to pad its advantage, and West didn’t help its cause by going a mere 9-of-27 from the free throw line.

“Missing that may free throws isn’t going to help any team; 10 more of those go in and it’s a four-point game, which is a huge swing,” Potter said. “I don’t think they’re 14 points better than us, though. We played so well against Sweet Home, so it was disappointing that we played like this against OP.”

Maguder led West with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Ryhan Chavanne and Green each added seven points. Allie Chavanne chipped in with six points, seven assists and 10 rebounds, while Kaylah Maze added five points.

West (2-9, 1-8 ECIC I) returned to action Tuesday at Clarence, but information about that contest was not available at press time. The Lady Indians close out their week this evening at Lancaster, but will still have nearly half a dozen games left to play at that point to close out the regular season — including their regular-season finale Feb. 16 against non-league crosstown rival West Seneca East.

“Hopefully we can bounce back and at least play well this week,” Potter said. “We’ve been mixing up our defense a little bit, and that’s been helping us as of late as far as giving us some different looks. We’ve still got to do a better job of rebounding. That’s been our tough spot all year.”