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By halftime, that notion had disappeared.

Largo stormed to 30 second-quarter points while holding the Wolverines to just four, and the Lions captured the 3A South Region title for the second year in a row and third time in the last four seasons with an 81-54 victory.

Largo will face 3A West Region champion Seneca Valley High in the state semifinals at 7 p.m. March 11 at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in Catonsville. Seneca Valley won the 3A West title Friday night with a 58-44 win against Blake High.

Despite having a squad that is well-seasoned when it comes to venturing deep into the playoffs, Largo coach Ayana Ball-Ward wasn't sure what to expect when game time rolled around.

"To be honest, I was a little nervous at first because [Westlake] was coming in as the No. 1 seed and they had all of this hype surrounding them," Ball-Ward said. "I think we won because this team has been playing really good team basketball as of late. I thought Wednesday [in a region semifinal game against Huntingtown] was our best game of the season. But I'd be lying if I said the second quarter wasn't our best quarter of the season."

The Lions were led by guard Brittany Taylor, who had a team-high 22 points, including four 3-pointers. Lions' senior Jessica Lyons had 18 points and double-digit steals and helped her team establish the tone in the second quarter.

Lyons had 13 of her team's first 23 points, including a play at the start of the second quarter that opened the floodgates. Lyons threw an inbound pass off of an unaware Westlake defender whose back was turned. Lyons took advantage and scored a three-point play 15 seconds into the second period.

"Everybody was just so focused for this game," Lyons said. "I think we just have so much more experience and we have really been playing well as a team."

Last summer, as Largo played in a tournament at Damascus High, Ball-Ward was down on her team, saying at the time that she didn't think the Lions were a very mature bunch. But that was last summer. Friday night, it was a different story.

"They are there," Ball-Ward said. "They are really getting to be the team that I want them to be. I have to say that over the last three weeks they have grown so much. They are just coming together."

"We're just getting the job done and we realize that this is the playoffs," Taylor said of the team's recent play. "We wanted to send a message to the other teams in the state."

Largo guard/forward Cierra Johnson had 12 points in the game and said an 82-72 loss to Henry A. Wise High in the county championship game on Feb. 24 lit a fire under the Lions.

"We came out ready to play," Johnson said. "After that loss [to Wise], we knew we had a lot of work to do and we've been doing that."