White Plains, Pleasant Valley and Bowdon, Georgia, felt the full fury of Spring Garden’s “relentless effort” defense last week. The Panthers prepared for this week’s Class 1A, Area 12 girls tournament with three blowout wins.

Spring Garden, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, plays Thursday at Gaston against No. 3 Cedar Bluff. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., after the 5:30 p.m. game between No. 1 Gaston and No. 5 Asbury. Cedar Bluff defeated No. 6 Gaylesville and No. 5 Asbury upset No. 4 Collinsville in overtime in Monday’s opening round games.

The Panthers downed visiting White Plains 45-21 last Tuesday, defeated Pleasant Valley 63-29 in their final regular season home game Friday and claimed a 63-22 road win over Bowdon Saturday. The first quarter scores were 21-2 (White Plains), 25-6 (Pleasant Valley) and 21-4 (Bowdon).

“That’s nice this time of the year. We got to play a lot of people in all three games. The starters have been really, really effective in the first and third quarters,” Panthers coach Ricky Austin said. “I really, really like how our girls are jelling together now and playing inspired basketball.”

Austin said his pre-tournament practices would increase in intensity to condition his players for more time on the court.

Against White Plains, freshman Heather Smart scored the first five points of the game. Tara Mullinax had eight points in the first quarter and 17 overall. Jordan Sides scored seven points in the first and 15 for the game. Shelby Malone had four points and freshman Tori Pierce three points.

In the win over Pleasant Valley, Sides led in scoring with 16 points. Mullinax tallied 11 of her 13 points in the first quarter. Smart had seven of her 10 points in the first quarter. Katie Rickman scored six points.

At Bowdon, Rickman drilled three 3-point baskets in the first quarter and scored 11 points for the game. Sides had 15 points at halftime and 17 overall. Mullinax scored 14 points. Lynley Crabb had 12 points, all in the fourth quarter.