YORK – The York girls’ basketball team wanted a good first quarter. What it got was something closer to great.

The Wildcats threw a 14-0, eight-minute piece of defensive dominance and assertive offensive rebounding at Wells, kept it up until the lead reached 21-0, and rolled to a 49-32 Western Class B victory Monday afternoon.

“It seems like this was the first good first quarter we’ve had this year,” said senior point guard Andrea Mountford, who helped set the tone with six of her eight points. “It definitely helped us and motivated us for the rest of the game.”

York improved to 8-3. Junior Marquis MacGlashing dominated the offensive glass and scored a game-high 11 points. Emily Campbell, 6-foot-1, knocked down shots and scored 10 points.

Senior co-captain Addison Labonte (10 points) and junior Ruby Cribby (8) slashed through the Warriors’ defense for baskets. Most of all, they all combined to make every Wells pass a struggle.

It was apparent they had gotten the message from Coach Rick Clark and then the captains, Mountford and Labonte, in separate meetings after a one-point overtime loss at Poland.

“They were in the right spot. They communicated better. They were more intense,” Clark said. “I told them before this game that our first quarter at Poland was our worst defensive quarter in the last 10 years. They knew that. I just reminded them of it.”

“Our starters knew what we wanted. We wanted this game really badly and we just wanted the rest of the team to want it as badly, and they did,” Mountford said. “They all stepped up 100 percent.”

Wells missed its first 13 shots and didn’t score until Nicole Moody flipped in a runner with 3:38 left in the second quarter.

From that point, Wells played relatively even with the taller, stronger Wildcats, though York did start the third quarter with six straight points to push the lead to 35-8.

“They were playing their trademark half-court, strong, physical defense and were able to get us to take some poor shots,” Wells Coach Don Abbott said.

“We came out and played very poor defense. We were like statues, where we’ve been a team that has played very aggressively and talked well on defense. They were not only able to get good shots, they were also able to get the offensive boards when they did miss.”

When the score reached 21-0, Abbott took a timeout. It was time for him to send a straightforward message.

“We needed to leave here knowing that we had played hard,” Abbott said. “They are not 17 points better than us. They are not a team that should be up 21-0 on us. Not to diminish anything they did, (but) we laid an egg.”

Mariyah Heath and Alison Furness led Wells in scoring, each with seven points.

The teams played with intensity throughout, with the reserves repeatedly grappling for loose balls, diving on the floor, deflecting passes and driving to the basket in the fourth quarter.

The teams meet again in the regular-season final at Wells.

“That will be an important game for playoff seeding. Oh, yes. They’ll come after us,” Clark said.

York will look to avenge a two-point loss on Friday when it hosts Greely. Wells is at Freeport on Friday.