LEE - The Lee girls basketball team has two standards - balanced scoring and a trademark full-court press defense.

Thursday night, the top-seeded Wildcats used both to beat No. 9 Holyoke Catholic 65-32 in a Western Massachusetts Division 3 quarterfinal game.

Lee coach Gary Wellington trotted out the full-court pressure just 2 minutes, 30 seconds into the game to help jump-start an offense that had missed several shots as the Wildcats (20-1) built only an early 3-2 lead.

"Anyone who's played us, knows we'll come after them," Wellington said.

The Wildcats' defense immediately led to a pair of steals - they had 23 for the game - and two quick baskets that sparked a 16-2 run in the first quarter. Lee closed out the first quarter with a 19-4 lead.

Katie Eckert had a game-high 19 points for the Wildcats, followed by Alex Young with 16.

The Gaels (12-10), who were a prolific 3-point shooting team throughout the regular season, could only muster 1-for-5 from long range before Annie Broda hit two of the team's three 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter.

The junior guard finished with 15 points, and senior guard Kaitlyn Veit added nine.

In addition to the full-court press, Lee's man-to-man defense was key in shutting down Holyoke Catholic's outside game.

"I knew they had two good shooters (in Broda and Veit) and knew we had to get on them," Wellington said.

The loss marked the final game for Gaels seniors Veit, Caitlin Rooke, Mary Curran, Lauren Delisi, Brynn Chevalier and Meghan Connolly.

Veit, who averaged 13.9 points per game this year, ended her career with 855 points.