The Georgiana girls managed to hold off the Montgomery Catholic Knights to claim a 45-36 win on Friday afternoon.

Catholic led 7-6 at the end of the first quarter, but Georgiana came to life in the second quarter to lead 24-15 at the half.

In the second half, the Knights whittled into Georgiana’s lead and cut it to 38-35 with two minutes to play.

However, two quick scores by Tralyn Gandy with under a minute left helped put the game out of reach.

Kennesha Nept was the leading scorer for the Panthers with 14 points, and she also went 6-8 from the free throw line.

Sha’Kayla Mixon added 11 points.

Despite the win, head coach John Cheatham said there’s work to be done before the Panthers start area play.

“We did a fair job, but we weren’t efficient in our offensive execution,” he said. “We’re not playing together too well right now. There are also things that we go over in practice that we don’t remember when we get into the game.”

Like the Georgiana boys, region play begins for the Lady Panthers on Tuesday against J.U. Blacksher.

“We’ve got a way to go before we start playing these good teams in our area,” Cheatham added.